A   VOICE   FROM   THE  CROWD 

THE  FOETY-FIRST  SERIES  OF  LYMAN  BEECHER 
LECTURES  ON  PREACHING 

DELIVERED  AT 
YALE  UNIVERSITY  IN  1915 


A  VOICE   FROM   THE    CROWD 


BY 

GEORGE  WHARTON  PEPPER 

\\ 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:   HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

MDCCCCXV 


N 


COPYRIGHT,  1915 
By  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

First  printed  July,  1915,  1500  copies 


To 

GEORGE  PARK  FISHER 

A  GUIDE,  A  FATHER 

AND  A  FRIEND 


3594 


CONTENTS 

LECTURE  PAGE 

Introductory  Note  .....  ix 

I.     The  Man  in  the  Pew           ....  1 

H.     The  Revelation  of  God       ....  32 

III.  Revelation  through  Contact        ...  65 

IV.  Revelation  through  Teaching      ...  98 
V.     The  Vision  of  Unity           ....  133 

VI.     The  Man  in  the  Pulpit       ....  174 


Chronological  List  of  Lectures  on  the  Lyman 

Beecher  Foundation  205 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

The  Records  of  the  Corporation  of  Yale  College 
indicate  that  the  following  action  was  taken  on  April 
12,  1871: 

VOTED,  To  accept  the  offer  of  Mr.  Henry  N.  Sage,  of 
Brooklyn,  of  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  for  the  found- 
ing of  a  lectureship  in  the  Theological  Department,  in  a 
branch  of  Pastoral  Theology,  to  be  designated  "The  Lyman 
Beecher  Lectureship  on  Preaching,"  to  be  filled  from  time 
to  time,  upon  the  appointment  of  the  Corporation,  by  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  of  any  evangelical  denomination,  who 
has  been  markedly  successful  in  the  special  work  of  the 
Christian  ministry. 

There  is,  of  course,  ample  Scriptural  authority  for 
describing  a  layman  as  a  minister.  It  is  somewhat 
more  doubtful  whether  it  can  properly  be  affirmed 
that  any  layman  has  been  engaged  in  "the  special 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry."  I  have  had  no  dis- 
position, however,  to  question  the  exegesis  of  the  Yale 
Corporation.  I  received  the  invitation  with  a  sense 
of  gratification.  I  accepted  it  with  a  determination  to 
do  my  best.  The  work  of  preparation  has  proved  to 
be  a  profitable  task.  The  delivery  of  the  lectures  was 
an  interesting  experience.  Whether  this  volume  con- 
tains anything  which  others  may  find  either  profitable 
or  interesting  is  a  matter  about  which  I  shall  not  allow 
myself  even  to  speculate. 

G.  W.  P. 


A  VOICE   FROM  THE   CROWD 


I 

THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW 

In  the  preparation  of  these  lectures  I  have  assumed 
that  there  was  little  of  the  personal  element  in  the 
choice  of  the  lecturer.  Those  upon  whom  rests  the 
weighty  responsibility  of  selection  thought  it  proper 
to  call,  for  the  first  time,  upon  a  layman  to  make  his 
contribution  to  the  discussion  of  Preaching.  "We 
have  heard  from  the  pulpit,"  they  said,  "it  is  time  we 
were  hearing  from  the  pew."  So  they  reached  down 
into  the  congregation,  and,  choosing  almost  at  ran- 
dom, they  drew  me  forth,  much  as  a  juror  is  drawn 
from  the  body  of  the  people  to  render  his  verdict  upon 
an  important  issue. 

I  had  a  lingering  and  unworthy  hope  that  someone 
would  successfully  challenge  me  and  so  relieve  me  of 
this  difficult  and  delicate  task.  As  far  as  I  am  aware, 
however,  no  one  has  raised  his  voice  in  protest  against 
the  startling  innovation;  and  now  the  time  for  chal- 
lenging the  juror  has  gone  by.  If,  however,  anyone  is 
disposed  to  be  coldly  critical,  his  opportunity  will 
come  when  I  have  had  my  say.  In  the  meantime,  let 
him  hold  his  fire  and  perhaps  a  feeling  akin  to  pity 
will  disarm  him  before  I  come  fairly  within  his  range. 

No  sooner  had  I  squared  myself  to  face  the  prob- 
lem of  preparation,  than  I  began  to  realize  that 
neither  on  preaching  nor  on  any  other  subject  is  there 


2  A  VOICE  FRGK  THE  CROWD 

really  such  a  thing  as  a  layman's  point  of  view.  The 
clergy  may,  with  some  reason,  be  regarded  as  a  class. 
They  have  common  duties  and  a  common  aim.  They 
have  had  substantially  similar  educational  experi- 
ences. They  choose  to  live,  or  are  compelled  to  live, 
upon  stipends  well  calculated  to  protect  them  against 
the  deceitf ulness  of  riches.  It  is  not  altogether  im- 
possible to  form  a  composite  picture  of  a  clergyman 
or  to  anticipate  the  view  that  he  will  take  upon  a  given 
subject. 

The  word  "layman,"  however,  stands  for  no  posi- 
tive concept  whatsoever.  The  "laic"  is  merely  one  of 
the  people.  I  verily  believe  that  there  are  more  kinds 
of  laymen  than  there  are  of  beasts,  birds  and  fishes. 
About  the  only  thing  they  have  in  common  is  the  mis- 
fortune of  not  being  clergymen.  Who  shall  assume 
to  express,  upon  any  subject,  the  views  of  this  hetero- 
geneous mass  of  human  beings?  Suppose  that  I 
affirm  that  preaching  of  a  certain  sort  is  helpful  and 
that  preaching  of  another  sort  does  more  harm  than 
good.  Immediately  laymen  will  rise  on  every  hand, 
and,  out  of  their  own  experience,  will  successfully 
contradict  me.  Indeed,  if  I  attempt  to  generalize 
about  preaching  at  all,  I  am  apt  to  be  reminded  of  the 
old  saying  that  "one  man's  meat  is  another  man's 
poison." 

Here  I  stand,  then,  chosen  as  a  representative,  but 
incapable  of  doing  justice  to  my  constituents.  I  am 
in  a  quandary.  What  then  shall  I  say?  I  seem  to 
have  no  alternative  but  to  ignore  the  theory  upon 
which  I  was  selected.  I  cannot  undertake  to  speak  on 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  3 

behalf  of  anybody  or  with  any  authority  whatsoever. 
Mine  must  be  only  a  voice  from  the  crowd. 

In  raising  my  voice  I  cannot  better  state  my  aim 
than  in  the  words  of  a  devout  Roman  Catholic  lay- 
man. In  the  preface  of  his  book,  The  Mystical  Ele- 
ment in  Religion,  Baron  Friedrich  von  Hugel  writes 
as  follows:  "The  following  book  would  condemn 
itself  to  pompous  unreality  were  it  to  mimic  official 
caution  and  emphasis,  whilst  ever  unable  to  achieve 
official  authority.  It  prefers  to  aim  at  a  layman's 
special  virtues  and  function;  complete  candor,  cour- 
age, sensitiveness  to  the  present  and  future,  in  their 
obscurer  strivings  toward  the  good  and  true,  as  these 
have  been  in  their  substance  already  tested  in  the  past, 
and  in  so  far  as  such  strivings  can  be  forecasted  by 
sympathy  and  hope.  And  I  thus  trust  that  the  book 
may  turn  out  to  be  as  truly  Catholic  in  fact,  as  it  has 
been  Catholic  in  intention." 

Even  when  I  have  thus  described  my  aim  I  must 
enter  a  still  more  definite  disclaimer  of  representative 
authority.  However  much  we  may  regret  it,  the  fact 
is  that  a  very  large  part  of  the  crowd  is  outside  the 
church  door.  I  believe  that  the  number  of  Christian 
"church  members"  of  nine  years  old  and  upward  is 
about  thirty-three  millions  in  continental  United 
States.  To  this  number  six  millions  may  be  added  to 
represent  those  in  Sunday  schools  and  in  young 
people's  societies  who  are  not  enrolled  as  church 
members.  Probably  the  same  figures  represent 
approximately  the  number  of  adults  more  or  less 
closely  affiliated  with  church  life  but  not  organically 


4  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

related  to  it.  On  the  basis  of  these  estimates  forty- 
five  millions  appears  to  represent  the  maximum 
strength  of  the  Christian  army,  including  camp- 
followers  and  stragglers.  This  leaves  a  great  mass 
of  some  forty  million  people,  composed  partly  of  very 
young  children  and  partly  of  adults,  who  are  either 
entirely  indifferent  to  organized  Christianity  or  defi- 
nitely antagonistic  to  it.  It  is  a  conservative  conclu- 
sion that  a  relatively  small  number  of  our  fellow 
countrymen  are  habitually  within  the  effective  range 
of  the  pulpit.  While,  therefore,  I  can  claim  to  be  one 
of  the  crowd,  I  am  found  in  that  smaller  section  of  it 
which  has  made  its  way  into  the  church  and  has 
accordingly  come  within  the  sound  of  the  preacher's 
voice.  If  I  am  not  qualified  to  represent  those  who  go 
to  church,  I  certainly  have  no  mandate  to  speak  for 
those  who  do  not. 

And  yet  I  have  this  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
crowd,  whether  inside  the  church  or  not — namely  that 
we  live  our  daily  life  together.  Some  of  my  warmest 
friends  are  zealous  church-goers.  Some  of  them  are 
never  seen  within  a  church.  Many  of  those  with 
whom  my  work  brings  me  into  touch  are  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  communion  of  their  allegiance 
supplies  spiritual  meat  and  drink.  Such  are  apt  to 
have  intimate  friends  among  the  clergy.  The  ma- 
jority of  my  acquaintances,  however,  shrink  instinc- 
tively from  any  contact  with  clergymen.  They  think 
of  the  clergy  as  a  class  separated  from  them  by  an 
impassable  gulf  and  they  make  no  effort  whatever  to 
bridge  it.  From  time  to  time  I  shall  have  something 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  5 

to  say  about  preaching  in  its  relation  to  this  severed 
branch  of  God's  great  family.  For  the  present,  I 
shall  be  content  to  speak  of  preaching  in  its  relation 
to  those  who  go  to  church  at  least  occasionally.  For 
the  time  being,  therefore,  "the  man  in  the  crowd"  and 
"the  man  in  the  pew"  may  be  used  as  equivalent 
terms. 

I  suppose  that  a  man  in  the  church-going  crowd 
ought  to  be  grateful  for  this  unlooked-for  opportunity 
to  express  his  views  on  preaching.  I  confess  that  I 
have  felt  moved  at  times  to  rise  in  my  place  and  volun- 
teer a  few  comments  upon  the  sermon.  Prudence, 
however,  has  restrained  me.  The  lawyer  is  trained  to 
sit  silent  while  the  other  man  is  having  his  say.  His 
patience  is  apt  to  be  rewarded,  for  his  turn  comes  by- 
and-by.  The  advocate  learns  by  experience  that  it  is 
best  not  to  interrupt.  I  remember  a  case  of  import- 
ance in  which  a  great  lawyer  was  making  his  argu- 
ment. His  adversary  made  constant  interruptions 
which,  to  my  surprise,  the  speaker  did  not  resent. 
Finally  the  court  became  impatient  and  the  presiding 
judge  rebuked  the  adversary  and  told  him  to  await 
his  turn.  "Pray  do  not  repress  him,"  said  the  speaker, 
"his  interruptions  give  me  great  satisfaction.  If  he 
sat  silent,  I  should  fear  that  I  was  missing  my  mark. 
When  he  wriggles  I  know  that  I  have  reached  his 
vitals."  Perhaps  my  self-control  in  the  past  is  ascrib- 
able  to  fear  that  an  interruption  would  indicate  that 
I  had  been  touched.  At  all  events,  I  can  have  my  say 
now  without  incriminating  myself  and  I  am  glad  that 
I  have  husbanded  my  little  supply  of  ammunition. 


6  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Even  if  the  man  in  the  crowd  is  nobody  in  particu- 
lar, he  may  insist  with  some  justice  that  he  is  entitled 
to  announce  his  individual  views  on  the  subject  of 
preaching  whenever  he  can  do  so  without  precipitat- 
ing a  riot.  He  has  at  least  as  vital  an  interest  in  the 
sermon  as  the  patient  has  in  the  kind  of  treatment 
prescribed  for  him  by  his  doctor. 

The  physician,  however,  has  a  great  advantage  over 
the  preacher.  If  the  man  in  the  crowd  has  a  physical 
ailment,  he  is  apt  to  be  aware  of  it  and  to  desire  a  cure. 
Of  his  spiritual  infirmities  he  is  less  keenly  conscious 
and,  if  perceived  at  all,  his  inclination  may  be  to  retain 
them.  The  physician  prescribes  for  men  one  at  a 
time.  He  knows,  in  each  case,  the  problem  which  he 
is  trying  to  solve.  The  preacher,  on  the  other  hand, 
addresses  himself  to  the  crowd.  He  is  giving  a  pre- 
scription to  patients  en  masse.  It  may  not  precisely 
meet  the  needs  of  a  single  individual  to  whom  it  is 
recommended. 

The  man  in  the  crowd  is  dimly  aware  of  the  diffi- 
culties which  beset  the  preacher.  He  is  not,  however, 
always  moved  to  leniency  merely  because  he  knows 
the  preacher's  task  to  be  a  hard  one.  He  is  apt  to 
argue  that  inability  to  preach  a  helpful  sermon  may 
be  a  good  reason  for  refraining  from  preaching  alto- 
gether, but  that  it  is  scarcely  a  justification  for  laying 
upon  the  brethren  a  greater  burden  than  they  are  able 
to  bear.  The  fact  is  that,  if  a  man  preaches  at  all,  he 
is  challenging  criticism.  Not  only  is  he  on  trial  him- 
self, but  the  communion  that  commissioned  him  is 
concerned  in  the  issue.  Even  the  truth  that  he  utters 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  7 

may  be  compromised  because  of  the  infirmity  of  his 
presentation  of  it. 

The  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  man  in  the  pew 
to  be  critical  of  the  preacher  is,  after  all,  an  indirect 
witness  to  the  importance  of  the  preacher's  function. 
If  the  sermon  were  an  immaterial  thing  and  if  we  in 
the  pews  were  not  at  least  dimly  conscious  of  a  great 
spiritual  need,  I  suppose  that  we  should  expect  ser- 
mons to  be  poor  just  as  we  are  content  that  after- 
dinner  speeches  shall  be  dull.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
we  long  for  the  sermon  to  be  good  and  we  have  a  dis- 
tinct sense  of  disappointment  when  we  find  in  it 
nothing  we  can  appropriate. 

Of  course  it  is  possible,  though  not  easy,  for  pater- 
familias to  enforce  at  his  own  table  the  rule  that  the 
children  must  not  criticise  the  sermon.  He  will  be 
the  more  ready  at  home  to  submit  to  this  regulation 
of  his  own  making  if  he  has  already  taken  occasion  to 
express  himself  freely  to  another  vestryman  on  the 
way  home  from  church.  Paterfamilias  must  not  for- 
get, however,  that  while  he  may  silence  tongues  for 
the  moment  he  cannot  control  active  young  minds. 
He  is  altogether  powerless  to  counteract  impressions 
which,  once  for  all,  the  preacher  has  already  made. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  trace  of  mercilessness  in  the 
verdict  of  the  crowd.  Some  of  the  older  people  may 
have  learned  to  temper  their  utterances,  but  the  boy 
or  the  girl  is  relentless  in  pronouncing  a  judgment 
that  is  quick  and  final.  Not  infrequently  their  judg- 
ments are  terribly  just;  for  the  things  in  a  preacher 
which  most  often  elicit  the  condemnation  of  the 


8  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

young  are  such  things  as  deserve  to  be  condemned — 
unreality,  affectation,  sanctimoniousness,  self-satis- 
faction. No  man  who  has  once  forfeited  the  respect 
of  young  people  by  manifesting  any  of  these  charac- 
teristics is  likely  thereafter  to  find  it  possible  to 
influence  them  for  good. 

While  the  man  in  the  crowd  reserves  his  right  to 
criticise  the  sermon  because  of  his  vital  interest  in  the 
matter,  he  may  at  least  be  reasonable  enough  to  limit 
himself  to  criticisms  that  are  constructive.  Perhaps 
the  man  who  at  the  moment  is  raising  his  voice  in  the 
crowd  owes  you  the  duty  to  imagine  himself,  at  ser- 
mon time,  sitting  in  his  place  at  church.  As  in  imagi- 
nation he  sits  there,  he  ought  to  indicate  for  your 
benefit  the  hopes  and  fears  that  throng  upon  him  as 
the  preacher  ascends  the  pulpit  steps. 

And  here  let  me  remark  that  the  preacher  has 
surely  created  a  strong  prejudice  for  or  against  him- 
self before  he  actually  begins  his  sermon.  Whether 
or  not  he  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the  portion  of  the 
service  preceding  the  sermon,  he  is  certain  to  have 
produced  some  kind  of  an  impression  upon  the  con- 
gregation before  he  has  so  much  as  announced  his 
text. 

Speaking  for  myself,  I  am  powerfully  affected  by 
the  bearing  of  a  man  during  service  time.  I  find  that, 
if  he  reads  from  the  Bible,  a  great  deal  can  be  gath- 
ered respecting  his  inner  self.  There  are  all  sorts  of 
ways  of  reading  the  Scriptures.  The  dramatic  ren- 
dering of  a  chapter,  in  which  the  reader  speaks  in 
different  tones  to  represent  the  several  dramatis  per- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  9 

sonse,  is  happily  a  thing  of  the  past.  We  are,  how- 
ever, unpleasantly  familiar  with  the  affected  solem- 
nity of  the  reader  who  employs  a  scripture  voice,  dis- 
tinct from  that  which  he  uses  on  other  occasions.  Then 
there  is  the  repulsive  familiarity  of  the  man  who  reads 
the  Bible  as  he  would  any  other  book,  reeling  off, 
without  difference  of  treatment,  the  most  trivial  inci- 
dent and  the  most  sacred  experience.  Far  too  seldom 
we  hear  a  chapter  read  by  a  man  who  possesses  the 
two  primary  qualifications  for  effective  reading — a 
clear  understanding  of  the  significance  of  what  he 
reads  and  an  earnest  intention  that  the  people  shall 
be  the  better  for  hearing  it.  We  cannot  all  have  good 
voices.  Our  elocution  may  be  more  or  less  imperfect. 
But  that  man  wins  my  respect  who  has  evidently  pre- 
pared himself  with  care  to  read  the  selected  passage 
and  makes  me  feel  that  he  is  really  striving  for  my 
edification.  I  can  recall  occasions  in  my  life  when  the 
earnest,  intelligent  and  reverent  reading  of  particular 
chapters  has  marked  an  epoch  in  spiritual  experience. 
If  the  preacher  has  led  his  congregation  in  prayer, 
he  has  necessarily  revealed  himself  somewhat  to  his 
hearers.  It  is  customary  to  emphasize  the  contrast 
between  the  prayer-book  prayer  and  the  prayer  that 
is  the  production  of  the  man  who  utters  it.  In  my 
experience,  however,  the  prayers  of  the  ages  are  so 
affected  by  the  personality  of  him  who  reads  them  in 
public  that  it  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
every  prayer  he  utters  is  original  with  him.  Even 
when  a  prayer  is  monotoned,  the  man  of  God  can 
make  it  an  approach  to  the  Throne.  On  the  other 


10  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

hand,  no  beauty  of  thought  or  expression  inherent  in 
the  prayer  itself  will  suffice  to  save  its  utterance  from 
irreverence  if  the  man  who  uses  it  has  not  made  the 
prayer  his  own.  I  have  heard  the  beautiful  Prayer  of 
Chrysostom  so  despitefully  entreated  upon  occasion 
that,  if  the  Saint  was  within  hearing,  I  am  sure  he 
did  not  recognize  it  as  his.  Whether  or  not  the  prayer 
is  original,  the  man  who  prays  it  must  strive  to  lose 
all  sense  of  everything  except  the  presence  of  God. 
Straining  after  effects,  whether  oratorical  or  elocu- 
tionary, is  only  a  little  better  than  listlessness  or  care- 
lessness. When  the  time  comes  to  address  the  congre- 
gation, the  preacher  will  find  it  hard  to  gain  a  hearing 
if  he  has  obviously  been  thinking  of  the  man  in  the 
pew  while  outwardly  addressing  himself  to  Almighty 
God. 

It  may  happen  that  the  preacher  has  taken  no  offi- 
cial part  in  the  service  before  the  sermon.  The  man 
in  the  pew  has  nevertheless  been  quick  to  note  whether 
the  service  has  been  to  the  preacher  a  spiritual  oppor- 
tunity or  a  time  for  relaxation.  Children  and  young 
people  are  critical  observers.  The  inward  eye  is  not 
the  only  one  that  takes  account  of  inattention  or  of 
wandering  thoughts.  You  will  understand,  I  am 
sure,  that  I  am  not  advocating  reverent  demeanor 
merely  for  the  sake  of  appearances.  I  am  suggesting 
that  the  edification  of  the  congregation  is  a  valid, 
although  a  minor,  reason  for  true  reverence  on  the 
part  of  the  minister. 

A  secondary  reason  for  not  simulating  reverence 
is  that  no  sham  is  more  easily  detected.  The  attempt 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  11 

of  a  modern  painter  to  depict  the  devotion  of  saints 
and  angels  is  usually  a  dismal  failure.  Even  so,  it  is 
more  successful  than  the  transparent  effort  of  a  god- 
less man  to  appear  devout. 

You  will  ask  me,  perhaps,  what  I  mean  by  rever- 
ence. It  is  not  a  manner  or  a  tone  or  a  posture.  It 
is  something  the  effect  of  which  is  not  confined  to  the 
man  himself.  In  some  subtle  way  it  influences  those 
about  him.  I  am  inclined  to  describe  it  as  the  atmos- 
phere exhaled  by  a  man  who  is  aware  of  the  Presence 
of  God. 

Occasionally  one  finds  a  really  devout  man  who  has 
allowed  himself  to  think  of  the  approachableness  of 
God  and  to  forget  His  majesty.  His  attitude  of 
familiarity  toward  God  is  not  irreverence,  although 
you  may  be  shocked  or  even  repelled  by  it.  The  fact 
is  that  the  man  is  acting  in  accordance  with  his  con- 
ception of  God  but  that  the  conception  lacks  dignity 
and  grandeur.  If  a  man  is  to  be  aware  of  God's 
presence  when  he  preaches,  it  must  be  because  God 
is  his  ever  present  companion  in  daily  life. 

The  more  ornate  the  service  and  the  more  elaborate 
the  ceremonial,  the  more  ghastly  the  appearance  of  a 
reverence  that  is  purely  external.  Those  who  shrink 
from  ceremonial  are  wont  to  insist  that  it  has  a  tend- 
ency to  encourage  mere  formalism.  My  observation 
leads  me  to  doubt  the  soundness  of  this  view.  Most 
men  who  are  irreverent  in  the  use  of  forms  would  be 
more  irreverent  without  them.  But  if  a  man  lacks 
true  godliness,  the  doing  of  ceremonial  acts  which 
presuppose  deep  devotion  surely  causes  his  deficiency 


12  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

to  stand  out  in  strong  relief.  Take  a  man  who  has  a 
vision  himself  and  can  interpret  yours  to  you,  clothe 
him  in  scarlet  and  put  a  chain  of  gold  around  his  neck 
and  you  will  straightway  forget  the  vestments  and 
think  only  of  the  man.  Take  a  man  without  spiritual 
depth  and  bedeck  him  in  cloth  of  gold  and  the  feeling 
toward  him  of  the  man  in  the  crowd  will  be  an  un- 
happy mixture  of  pity  and  contempt. 

I  do  not  mean,  by  anything  that  I  say,  to  under- 
estimate the  importance  of  doing  things  decently  and 
in  order.  Slovenliness  and  eccentricity  in  the  pulpit 
or  in  the  conduct  of  the  service  is  greatly  to  be  de- 
plored. While  the  abuse  of  forms  tends  to  idolatry, 
the  entire  disregard  of  them  promotes  irreverence. 
I  do  not  know  which  is  the  worse ;  to  lavish  upon  an 
idol  the  worship  due  to  God  Almighty  or  to  comport 
one's  self  toward  the  Lord  of  Hosts  in  a  manner  that 
would  be  offensive  to  a  graven  image. 

It  is  by  no  means  true  that  carelessness  about  exter- 
nals is  to  be  accepted  as  a  guarantee  of  godliness.  The 
question  is  not  merely  one  of  vestments  and  cere- 
monial. The  small  man  endowed  with  a  big  voice, 
instead  of  using  his  gift  devoutly,  may  envelop  him- 
self in  sound  as  with  a  garment  and  spread  out  its 
modulations  as  a  curtain.  His  vocal  eccentricities  and 
his  affectations  of  pronunciation  may  bring  the  Word 
of  God  into  contempt.  A  priest  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  offered  himself  for  service  in  a  Western 
diocese.  The  bishop  informed  him  that  he  would  be 
more  useful  in  that  particular  field  if  he  shaved  off 
his  beard.  The  man  expressed  honest  surprise,  and 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  13 

cited  the  case  of  the  presiding  bishop  of  that  com- 
munion, who  is  a  fine  figure  of  a  man  with  a  beard  like 
a  patriarch.  The  bishop,  however,  was  able  to  point 
out  a  clear  distinction  between  the  two  cases.  "In  the 
case  of  the  presiding  bishop/'  he  said,  "the  beard  is 
not  the  most  noticeable  thing  in  sight."  He  knew  his 
community  well  enough  to  be  aware  that  its  people 
would  be  prejudiced  at  once  against  a  minister  who 
showed  a  weakness  for  facial  landscape  gardening. 

Among  preachers  who  have  repelled  me,  I  can  re- 
member some  who  were  polished  and  curled  for  the 
occasion  and  some  who  were  painfully  indifferent  to 
that  quality  which  is  said  to  come  next  to  godliness. 
The  preacher,  like  any  other  gentleman,  should  at  all 
times  be  sensitive  to  every  consideration  of  neatness, 
but  should  shrink  in  manly  disgust  from  all  the  mere 
elegancies  of  dress.  I  am,  of  course,  aware  that  a 
certain  lack  of  virility  is  believed  by  many  to  be  con- 
sistent with  true  godliness.  I  dissent  from  this  view ; 
for  godliness  is  merely  Godlikeness  spelt  with  a  small 
"g."  In  order  to  be  godly  a  man  must  be  true  to  his 
type.  He  who  is  made  in  God's  image  is  every  inch 
a  man.  There  may  be  excellent  traits  which,  in  some 
cases,  make  us  lenient  in  our  judgment  of  the  un- 
manly minister;  but  just  to  the  extent  that  he  lacks 
any  quality  that  we  think  characteristic  of  a  strong 
man,  to  that  extent  he  differs  from  his  Master. 

A  man  of  physical  vigor  has  a  great  natural  ad- 
vantage in  the  pulpit,  just  as  he  has  at  the  bar  of  the 
court.  The  greatest  lawyer  I  know  owes  not  a  little 
of  his  success  to  the  fact  that,  from  the  moment  of  his 


14  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

entrance  into  the  room,  he  is  the  biggest  and  most 
vital  thing  in  sight.  The  effect  on  court  and  jury  is 
magnetic.  Such  a  man  exhales  power  at  every  mo- 
ment. We  men  in  the  crowd  are  animals,  after  all, 
and  we  are  wholesomely  affected  by  an  embodiment 
of  health,  strength  and  virility.  The  ladies  of  the  con- 
gregation are  often  well  disposed  toward  a  preacher 
with  the  sunken  cheek  and  the  corded  throat  of  an 
ascetic.  But,  taking  us  all  in  all,  I  think  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  we  are  most  apt  to  be  influenced  by  the  man 
who  is  evidently  ready  for  the  next  life  but  is  ob- 
viously fit  for  this  one. 

If  the  man  in  the  pew  is  influenced  by  the  minister's 
demeanor  during  the  service  that  precedes  the  sermon, 
he  is,  of  course,  powerfully  affected  by  the  preacher's 
bearing  in  the  pulpit.  It  is  not  that  the  man  in  the 
pew  is  disposed  to  lay  undue  stress  upon  the 
preacher's  manner.  On  the  contrary,  I  think  that  in 
this  country  we  are  inclined  to  be  almost  too  lenient 
in  our  judgments  of  elocution  and  other  external 
matters.  If  a  man  adversely  criticises  the  preacher's 
bearing  it  is  almost  always  because  he  perceives  in  it 
an  indication  of  some  serious  defect.  Conceit  is  be- 
tokened by  a  pose.  Affectation  betrays  itself  in  a 
gesture.  It  does  not  require  great  insight  to  deter- 
mine almost  at  a  glance  whether  the  preacher  is  eager 
to  preach  a  sermon  or  is  yearning  to  save  a  soul. 
Awkwardness  is  forgotten  in  the  presence  of  zeal. 
The  consciousness  of  a  message  is  electric  in  its  effect. 
If  the  preacher  is  blessed  with  enthusiasm,  it  quickly 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  15 

communicates  itself  to  the  people  in  the  pews.  Vigor 
and  virility  are  sure  passports  to  close  attention. 

Perhaps  the  best  way  to  insure  an  appreciation  of 
these  blessings  is  to  recall  instances  in  which  they  have 
been  lacking. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  service  preceding  the  ser- 
mon has  been  impressive.  The  man  in  the  pew  is  not 
a  susceptible  being,  but,  on  the  occasion  which  I  am 
picturing,  he  is  rather  more  impressionable  than 
usual.  He  settles  down  in  his  place  and  the  preacher 
has  his  chance. 

The  first  use  the  preacher  makes  of  his  opportunity 
is  sometimes  a  little  disappointing.  It  may  happen 
that  the  men  in  the  pew  have  somehow  made  up  their 
minds  that  the  preacher  is  full  of  his  message.  When 
he  opens  his  mouth  his  hearers  are  sure  that  his  first 
words  will  be  a  prophetic  utterance.  If  instead  he 
proceeds  to  reel  off  a  string  of  notices,  there  ensue 
both  a  sense  of  untimeliness  and  a  suspicion  of  wood- 
enness.  I  wish  preachers  would  so  arrange  matters 
that  their  announcements  could  be  made  at  some 
other  time  than  immediately  before  the  sermon.  You 
will  think,  perhaps,  that  I  insist  too  much  on  the  im- 
portance of  the  dramatic  element.  You  must  remem- 
ber, however,  that  it  is  legitimate,  even  essential,  to 
appeal  to  the  whole  man.  As  he  sits  there  in  the 
pew,  you  must  take  him  as  he  is;  not  as  you  might 
wish  him  to  be.  He  has,  among  other  things,  a  sense 
of  dramatic  fitness,  and  he  perceives  that,  when  the 
preacher  makes  his  entrance  into  the  pulpit  and  has 
scanned  his  hearers,  the  psychological  moment  has 


16  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

come  to  launch  the  important  business  that  has 
brought  you  together.  Imagine  a  stage  set  for  the 
trial  scene.  Enter  Portia,  in  her  scarlet  robe.  She 
advances  to  a  point  at  which  all  eyes  are  fixed  upon 
her  and  proceeds  to  make  some  announcements 
respecting  box-office  arrangements  and  the  dates  on 
which  the  various  plays  in  the  repertoire  are  to  be 
produced. 

Let  me  remark,  parenthetically,  that  many  excel- 
lent ministers  who  can  cope  successfully  with  the  ser- 
mon problem,  nevertheless  fall  victims  to  the  difficulty 
of  making  their  notices  intelligible.  I  have  known 
men,  otherwise  capable,  who  appeared  to  be  consti- 
tutionally unable  to  remove  the  doubts  of  the  congre- 
gation as  to  the  day,  date  and  place  of  the  meeting  of 
the  men's  club  and  the  ladies'  guild.  I  have  known 
others,  who,  in  announcing  the  hymns,  almost  invari- 
ably took  issue  with  the  numerals  prominently  dis- 
played on  notice  boards  throughout  the  church.  As, 
at  such  times,  the  choir  always  take  the  side  of  the 
notice  board,  an  occasion  of  ungodly  mirth  is  thereby 
furnished  to  the  young  people  of  the  congregation. 

While  we  are  recalling  some  of  our  less  pleasing 
experiences,  let  us  now  suppose  that  our  preacher 
announces  his  text  in  the  tone  and  manner  from  which 
in  the  past  we  have  not  infrequently  suffered.  In- 
stantly everybody  is  filled  with  gloom.  If  a  man 
from  the  outside  crowd  happens  to  have  found  his 
way  into  a  pew,  he  at  once  concludes  that  the  unhappy 
preacher  is  borne  down  by  the  weight  of  a  great  sor- 
row. His  tone  suggests  not  only  that  awful  things 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  17 

have  happened  in  the  immediate  past  but  also  that 
the  worst  is  yet  to  come.  The  man  accustomed  to  his 
place  in  the  pew  knows  that  this  is  not  the  true  expla- 
nation. The  preacher  is  merely  one  of  those  who  have 
fallen  into  the  bad  habit  of  lugubriousness.  "Cheer 
up!"  I  venture  to  shout.  "If  you  are  going  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  please  do  not  forget  that  you  are  the 
bearer  of  tidings  of  great  joy.  If  you  are  not  going 
to  preach  the  Gospel,  we  should  have  had  warning, 
so  that  we  could  stay  away." 

Some  time  ago  I  was  one  of  a  great  audience 
assembled  to  hear  Mr.  Sunday.  Almost  all  those 
present  were  college  students.  Before  he  began  to 
speak,  the  young  faces  had  upon  them  a  curious  and 
unnatural  look  of  depression.  "Cheer  up!"  said  the 
evangelist,  "you're  not  in  church."  The  effect  was 
electric.  The  students  became  boys  again.  The 
speaker,  by  a  single  stroke,  had  broken  down  their 
reserve.  I  do  not  stop  to  argue  the  question  whether 
the  evangelist  ought  to  have  said  it,  or  whether  his 
implication  was  or  was  not  fair  to  the  clergy.  I 
merely  record  the  fact  that  several  thousand  young 
men,  whether  justly  or  unjustly,  were  obviously 
accustomed  to  associate  preaching  and  gloom. 

If  I  correctly  interpret  Our  Lord's  mission  and 
message,  the  association  of  these  ideas  must  cause 
Him  unspeakable  pain. 

I  come  back  to  the  text  which  the  preacher  has 
announced.  Again  I  interrupt  him  with  a  question. 
"Why  do  so  many  preachers  regularly  begin  their 
sermons  by  giving  out  a  text?"  He  is  polite  enough 


18  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

to  give  me  two  answers.  "In  the  first  place,"  he  says, 
"it  is  to  give  notice  to  the  congregation  of  the  subject 
of  the  discourse.  In  the  second  place,"  he  explains, 
"it  is  to  ground  the  sermon  upon  Holy  Writ." 

These  reasons  do  not  seem  to  me  to  be  conclusive. 
I  venture  to  think  it  unfortunate  that  an  unbending 
formula  should  control  the  beginning  of  the  sermon. 
We  who  are  accustomed  to  the  argument  of  cases  in 
court  are  aware  that  much  of  the  effectiveness  of  the 
oral  argument  depends  upon  its  opening.  The 
method  of  opening  should  differ  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  case.  As  one  of  the  lawyers  in  the 
crowd,  I  suggest  that  the  preacher  should  allow  him- 
self a  similar  liberty.  In  point  of  fact,  the  mere 
announcement  of  a  text  seldom  conveys  a  definite  idea 
of  the  preacher's  topic.  I  once  heard  a  very  effective 
sermon  on  the  text,  " — And  the  Jebusites."  The 
delay  of  the  Israelites  in  proceeding  to  overpower  a 
small  and  despised  enemy  was  used  to  point  a  whole- 
some lesson  on  the  importance  of  driving  out  our 
small  sins.  The  effectiveness  of  the  sermon  depended 
in  large  part  upon  the  unexpected  use  which  the 
preacher  made  of  the  text. 

As  to  the  second  reason  for  announcing  a  text,  I 
suggest  that  the  way  to  ground  a  sermon  on  Holy 
Writ  is  to  ground  it  there  and  not  to  announce  that 
you  are  going  to.  What  a  preacher  can  deduce  from 
a  text  of  Scripture  is  quite  as  much  a  matter  of  his 
own  ingenuity  as  what  a  lawyer  can  infer  from  a 
clause  of  the  Constitution.  Merely  to  quote  the  Con- 
stitution to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  19 

gives  to  that  august  tribunal  no  assurance  that  the 
lawyer's  contention  is  warranted  by  what  he  cites. 

My  suggestion  is  that  the  sermon  should  be  begun 
in  the  way  most  appropriate  to  the  particular  occa- 
sion, and  that,  more  often  than  not,  this  will  require 
some  other  opening  than  the  announcement  of  a  text 
from  Scripture.  When  the  Athenians  asked  list- 
lessly but  insolently  "What  will  this  babbler  say?" 
Saint  Paul  was  equal  to  the  situation.  He  plunged 
at  once  into  the  daily  life  of  his  hearers  and  showed 
them  at  the  outset  that  he  had  detected  their  habits  of 
thought.  He  skillfully  made  an  inscription  upon  an 
heathen  altar  the  point  of  departure  for  a  sermon  on 
the  being  and  nature  of  God.1 

It  will  be  said,  no  doubt,  that  my  protest  against 
formalism  and  a  mechanical  method  is  applicable 
chiefly  to  preachers  of  my  own  communion.  Let 
note  be  made  of  the  protest,  however,  by  preachers  of 
all  communions;  for  few  are  immuned  against  pro- 
fessionalism and  the  deadening  force  of  habit.  In  a 
communion  which  emphasizes  the  sacramental  aspect 
of  religion  and  worships  in  accordance  with  fixed 
liturgical  principles,  preaching  is  not,  as  a  rule,  so 
great  a  factor  in  spiritual  experience  as  it  is  in  other 
cases.  Such  testimony  as  I  have  been  able  to  gather 
leads  me  to  conclude  that  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
for  example,  there  is  a  large  percentage  of  devout 
people  who  esteem  the  sermon  the  least  important 
part  of  the  service.  If  this  is  true  it  would  be  remark- 

1  Acts,  xvii.,  22. 


20  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

able  if  the  standard  of  excellence  were  as  high  in  the 
pulpits  of  my  own  communion  as  in  those  of  others ; 
because  the  flanks  of  our  preachers  are  not  to  the 
same  extent  gored  by  the  spur  of  necessity.  Indeed, 
I  sometimes  find  among  my  brethren  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  an  unblushing  admission  of  a  higher  level  of 
prophetic  excellence  on  the  part  of  their  preachers. 
Whatever  the  fact  may  be,  loyalty  compels  me  to 
observe  that,  whether  or  not  comparisons  are  odious, 
they  are  certainly  difficult  to  make  with  justice  to 
both  parties.  I  should  be  quite  willing  to  concede 
that  we  underemphasize  preaching  if  my  brethren 
would  admit  that  they  underestimate  sacraments. 

Irrespective  of  our  church  relationships,  we  men  in 
the  pews  are,  as  a  rule,  susceptible  to  the  influence 
of  the  spoken  word.  Judges  will  tell  you  that,  while 
the  printed  briefs  are  helpful,  yet  most  cases  are  won 
or  lost  on  the  oral  argument.  American  jurymen  are 
quick  to  close  their  ears  to  an  address  that  is  insincere 
or  difficult  to  follow.  But  they  give  their  interested 
attention  to  a  speaker  who  is  talking  sense  and  is 
obviously  trying  to  help  them  solve  the  problem  with 
which  they  are  called  upon  to  grapple. 

As  a  rule  we  are  most  susceptible  to  the  power  of 
preaching.  A  spiritual  hide  is  often  impenetrable  to 
a  charge  of  one  kind  but  may  nevertheless  be  per- 
forated by  another.  While  I  know  some  men  who 
believe  themselves  to  be  sermon-proof,  I  very  much 
doubt  whether  they  really  are.  The  right  preacher 
and  the  right  moment  may  never  have  happened  to  be 
in  conjunction.  Men  of  such  diverse  sorts  are  every 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  21 

day  yielding  to  the  influence  of  preaching  that  one 
feels  it  reasonable  to  infer  that  not  even  the  pachy- 
derms are  hopeless.  The  effects  produced  by  power- 
ful sermons  are,  of  course,  as  various  as  the  needs  and 
temperaments  of  the  men  who  hear  them.  Sometimes 
conviction  is  carried  by  mere  force  of  the  reasoning. 
Sometimes  there  comes  a  quickened  sense  of  the 
awf  ulness  of  sin.  To  many  a  man  the  preacher  brings 
the  vision  of  a  nobler  life  and  a  sudden  realization  of 
his  own  spiritual  possibilities.  Not  seldom  the  help- 
ful influence  is  exerted  not  so  much  by  what  the 
preacher  says  as  by  what  he  is  perceived  to  be.  In 
recalling  the  first  sermon  that  left  a  permanent  im- 
pression upon  him  a  layman  recently  said  that  the 
effect  produced  on  him  was  like  that  made  on  Garfield 
by  an  address  which  Emerson  delivered  at  Williams 
College.  "I  do  not  remember  what  Mr.  Emerson 
talked  about,"  said  Garfield,  "but  I  walked  home  with 
my  head  in  the  air  and  my  lungs  felt  as  if  they  were 
filled  with  oxygen." 

There  is  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  preacher 
who  uses  his  power  to  compel  his  people  to  accept  a 
doctrine  merely  for  the  sake  of  adding  to  their  stock 
of  orthodox  beliefs,  and  the  preacher  who  arouses  his 
hearers  to  their  need  for  definite  teaching  and  pro- 
claims as  a  satisfaction  of  that  need  a  doctrine  which 
has  from  the  beginning  stood  the  test  of  Christian 
experience.  All  will  agree  that  a  preacher  of  the 
second  type  is  doing  his  people  one  of  the  greatest 
services  that  can  be  rendered.  Opinions  will  differ 
respecting  the  value  of  the  service  rendered  by  a 


22  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

preacher  of  the  first  type.  It  is  related  of  a  fine  old 
Virginia  gentleman  in  the  early  forties  that,  after 
hearing  a  powerful  sermon  of  the  doctrinal  sort,  he 
remarked  that  he  did  not  know  much  about  theology, 
but  when  he  came  out  of  the  church  he  felt  like 
throwing  up  his  hat  and  crying  "Hurrah  for  the 
Atonement!"  I  dare  not  say  that  such  discourses  do 
no  good,  but  I  question  the  wisdom  of  leading  people 
to  think  of  beliefs  as  ends  in  themselves  instead  of 
keys  to  unlock  the  problems  of  life. 

It  is  probably  impossible  to  obtain  anything  like  a 
consensus  respecting  the  order  of  importance  of  the 
various  types  of  sermon.  While  these  lectures  were 
in  preparation  a  number  of  representative  laymen  of 
various  communions,  of  different  occupations  and  of 
diverse  temperaments,  were  asked  to  express  their 
views  upon  this  point.  The  six  types  of  sermon  thus 
suggested  for  their  consideration  were  these : 

Expositions  of  portions  of  Scripture  with  practical 
applications  to  daily  life. 

Simple  statements  of  Christian  doctrine. 

Practical  suggestions  respecting  Christian  conduct 
and  the  moral  law. 

Stirring  appeals  to  forsake  sin  and  take  a  stand  for 
God. 

Philosophical  discussions  of  problems  of  belief. 

Discussions  of  contemporary  social,  political  and 
economic  problems. 

Between  the  several  voices  in  the  crowd  there  was 
little  harmony.  The  order  in  which  the  six  types  are 
here  stated  corresponds  in  a  general  way  with  the 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  23 

order  favored  by  those  who  expressed  opinions.  No 
single  topic  received  a  majority  of  votes  for  any  given 
position  in  the  list.  Nobody  assigned  to  expositions 
of  Scripture  a  place  lower  than  third.  The  only  dif- 
ference of  opinion  respecting  discussions  of  contem- 
porary problems  was  as  to  whether  they  should  rank 
fifth  or  sixth.  Nobody  assigned  first  place  to  philo- 
sophic discussions  of  belief;  and  their  relegation  to 
one  of  the  last  two  places  was  favored  by  a  majority. 
Almost  all  the  voices  recognized  the  necessity  of 
modifying  the  order  of  importance  to  meet  the  vary- 
ing needs  of  diverse  kinds  of  congregations.  So 
obvious  is  this  last  consideration  that  it  is  at  least 
doubtful  whether  any  very  useful  inference  can  be 
drawn  from  the  returns.  Nothing  is  clear  except  that 
the  message  may  take  any  one  of  many  forms  and 
that  the  choice  must  be  made  with  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  men  in  the  pews. 

While  it  is  unprofitable  to  consider  more  fully  the 
relative  importance  of  sermon-types,  it  is  important 
to  ponder  longer  over  the  recognized  difference  be- 
tween the  written  and  the  spoken  word  in  the  matter 
of  compelling  power.  The  written  word  is  the  mes- 
sage only.  The  spoken  word  is  the  message  plus  the 
man.  My  own  experience  supplemented  by  extended 
inquiry  satisfies  me  that  it  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
the  weight  which  the  man  in  the  pew  attaches  to  the 
integrity  of  the  preacher. 

A  few  ministers  of  my  acquaintance  have  seemed 
to  derive  great  comfort  from  the  distinction  between 
the  man  and  his  message.  The  genuineness  of  the 


24  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

message,  they  observe,  is  independent  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  man.  The  word  of  life  may  be  spoken 
even  by  one  who  is  dead  in  sin.  That  is  true.  The 
fact  is  one  of  God's  wonderful  workings.  I  myself 
have  known  a  few  preachers  whose  intellectual  gifts 
were  so  great  and  whose  powers  of  expression  were 
so  remarkable  that  their  discourses  cast  a  certain 
spell  over  some  of  their  hearers,  notwithstanding  the 
preacher  was  known  to  be  a  stranger  to  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  It  is  also  true  that  free  prophecy  is  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  representative  preaching  in  which 
the  speaker  is  voicing  the  teachings  of  his  church. 
The  message  is  perhaps  less  affected  when  only  a 
conduit  is  unwholesome  than  if  the  fountain-head  is 
polluted.  Such  a  distinction  is,  however,  altogether 
unprofitable  in  this  connection.  Speaking  generally, 
let  the  hearer  even  suspect  that  all  is  not  well  with  the 
man  who  is  exhorting  him,  and  the  message,  however 
true,  will  have  lost  its  penetrating  power. 

Whether  or  not  pragmatism  is  a  valid  basis  for  a 
philosophic  system,  the  pragmatic  test  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  those  which  the  man  in  the  crowd  applies  to 
the  preacher's  message.  He  not  only  asks,  "Does  it 
work  in  practice?"  but  he  insists  upon  inquiring 
whether  it  works  in  the  case  of  the  preacher  himself. 
The  man  in  the  crowd  is  apt  to  declare  that  the 
preacher  himself  is  Exhibit  A  to  his  own  message.  "I 
reject  his  advice,"  he  may  say  to  himself,  "if  following 
it  will  make  me  like  him."  This  is  brutally  frank,  but 
it  is  the  expression  of  a  state  of  mind  that  must  be 
reckoned  with.  One  of  its  consequences  is  so  impor- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  25 

tant  as  to  deserve  special  mention.  I  refer  to  the 
power  of  the  preacher's  personality  in  attracting 
young  men  toward  the  ministry  or  definitely  repelling 
them  from  it.  My  observation  leads  me  to  believe 
that  the  attitude  of  most  boys  toward  the  ministry  is 
determined  by  the  impression  made  upon  them  by 
some  individual  minister.  If  a  boy's  keen  insight  has 
detected  some  affectation,  or  effeminacy,  or  self-con- 
ceit, he  is  apt  to  make  a  hasty  but  positive  generaliza- 
tion and  to  include  all  clergymen  in  a  sweeping  con- 
demnation. The  injustice  of  this  will  readily  be  con- 
ceded. The  sadly  important  fact,  however,  is  that  the 
presumption  thus  raised  is  likely  to  place  the  ministry 
outside  the  list  of  callings  which  the  boy  will  seriously 
consider.  The  parents,  the  home,  the  school,  the  col- 
lege, the  friends — all  must  bear  their  share  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  determining  the  young  man's  choice; 
but  a  factor  that  must  not  be  overlooked  is  the  clergy- 
man whose  bearing  has  repelled  when  it  should  have 
attracted. 

I  have  insisted  that  the  preacher  must  have  lived  in 
God's  presence.  Indeed,  if  one  may  venture  upon 
any  generalization,  this  is  a  safe  one,  namely,  that  if 
the  preacher  is  to  open  heaven  to  his  hearers  he  must 
himself  be  in  the  Spirit. 

It  will  not  suffice,  however,  for  the  preacher  to  be 
aware  of  God's  presence  and  even  to  be  a  genuine 
embodiment  of  His  message.  It  is  absolutely  essential 
that  he  should  have  the  common  touch.  He  must  be 
capable  of  identifying  himself  with  his  fellow  men. 


26  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

This  capacity  he  can  acquire  only  by  entering  into 
their  lives  and  by  placing  himself  at  their  disposal. 

To  gain  his  message  the  preacher  must  lose  himself 
in  God.  To  give  it  carrying  power  he  must  lose 
himself  in  men. 

1  referred  a  little  while  ago  to  Saint  Paul  on  Are- 
opagus.   I  wonder  whether  we  men  in  the  pews  are 
measurably  in  the  position  of  those  who  heard  that 
great  sermon  on  Mars  Hill.     In  the  next  lecture  I 
shall  give  reasons  for  the  belief  that  our  pews  contain 
many  men  who  are  assembled  in  the  name  of  a  God  to 
them  unknown.2     More  or  less  consciously  we  are 
longing  for  the  preacher  who  will  say  to  us,  "You 
who  support  churches  and  say  amen  to  prayers,  but 
have  no  clear  vision  of  the  Father,  are  religious  with- 
out being  spiritual.     You  worship  you  know  not 
what  ;3  and  Whom  you  thus  ignorantly  worship,  Him 
declare  I  unto  you."4 

Whether  we  realize  it  or  not,  what  we  in  the  pews 
need  most  of  all  is  to  be  made  vividly  aware  of  the 
spirit  world  and  to  be  taught  to  see  the  material  and 
the  spiritual  in  true  perspective.  Said  a  distinguished 
layman  to  me  not  long  ago,  "The  preachers  that  have 
done  me  the  most  good  and  left  upon  me  the  most 
lasting  impression  are  those  who  have  lifted  me  out 
of  one  kind  of  life  and  put  me  back  into  the  other  in 
a  way  that  made  me  feel  I  was  a  part  of  both."  The 
human  spirit  is  influenced,  among  others,  in  these 

2  Infra,  p.  35. 

3  St.  John,  iv.,  22. 

4  Acts,  xvii.,  23. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  27 

three  ways:  by  direct  intercourse  with  God,  by  the 
operation  of  reason  and  emotion  and  by  the  action  of 
other  human  spirits.  The  last  is  the  sphere  of  preach- 
ing. Prophecy  is  effective  not  only  because  it  informs 
the  mind  with  the  facts  and  the  implications  of  the 
Gospel,  but  also  because  it  enforces  them  by  spiritual 
power.  This,  I  suppose,  is  the  reason  why  almost  all 
laymen  will  tell  you  that  they  have  been  more  im- 
pressed by  the  preaching  of  very  good  men  than  by 
that  of  very  able  men.  It  is  not  the  type  of  the  dis- 
course, objectively  considered,  that  is  the  important 
thing.  A  commonplace  and  seemingly  lifeless  sub- 
ject can  be  transfigured  by  the  touch  of  a  preacher 
who  draws  his  power  from  God  and  gives  his  heart  to 
his  people.  I  have  been  at  pains  to  collect  from  many 
lay  correspondents  lists  of  preachers  who  have  influ- 
enced their  lives.  There  is  scarcely  a  name  on  any 
list  which  was  not  worn  by  a  man  of  spiritual  gran- 
deur. Some  of  the  preachers  thus  gratefully  remem- 
bered were  men  of  rich  intellectual  gifts.  Many 
were  not.  The  name  of  Phillips  Brooks  was  on  almost 
all  lists;  but  there  was  testimony  also  to  the  per- 
manent impression  made  by  obscure  men  in  small 
country  parishes. 

As  I  picture  to  myself  the  men  who  have  influenced 
me  from  the  pulpit  I  am  impressed  with  two  thoughts : 
their  external  diversity  and  their  interior  likeness. 
Memory  calls  before  me  a  man  dressed  in  monastic 
habit,  an  evangelist  stripped  of  his  coat,  bishops  in 
their  robes  of  office,  ministers  clad  in  the  Geneva 
gown,  presbyters  in  cassock  and  surplice  and  other 


28  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

presbyters  in  the  costume  of  the  street.  But  all  of 
these,  however  diverse  their  manifestations  of  the 
Spirit,  were  real  men.  There  was  no  nonsense  about 
them  and  they  were  as  keenly  responsive  to  the  touch 
of  God  as  they  were  quick  to  perceive  the  needs  of  the 
man  in  the  crowd. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  common  aim  and  character- 
istics of  those  men  who,  by  the  spoken  word,  have 
influenced  my  friends  and  me  for  good,  I  think  I  may 
now  venture  upon  a  definition  of  preaching. 

Preaching,  in  its  strictest  sense,  is  the  public  use  of 
speech  with  intent  to  reveal  God  to  man. 

We  have  seen,  however,  that  to  reveal  God  to  others 
a  man  must  himself  have  made  some  progress  in 
attaining  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  You  have 
assented,  also,  to  my  other  contention,  that  the 
preacher  must  be  a  sharer  of  the  life  of  the  crowd.  It 
follows  that  in  these  lectures  preaching  cannot  satis- 
factorily be  considered  apart  from  the  preacher. 
Indeed,  it  would  not  be  far  from  the  truth  to  declare 
that  while  the  aim  of  preaching  is  the  revelation  of 
God,  yet  one  of  its  incidents  is  the  unconscious  self- 
revelation  of  the  preacher. 

Let  me  give  you  the  needed  assurance  that  I  am 
not  indulging  in  definition  merely  because  pedantry- 
is  a  lawyer's  idea  of  having  a  good  time.  If  the  pre- 
scribed subject  of  these  lectures  required  me  to  deal 
with  preaching  and  to  ignore  the  preacher,  I  should 
do  well  to  surrender  my  commission  to  a  teacher  of 
rhetoric  and  of  elocution.  If,  however,  I  am  right  in 
conceiving  all  preaching  as  the  expression  of  the 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  29 

preacher's  inmost  self,  then  the  man  in  the  crowd  may 
haply  shout  suggestions  that  will  be  of  use.  For  the 
tiresome  reiteration  that  a  preacher  must  be  godly 
and  human,  the  voice  from  the  crowd  may  venture  to 
substitute  some  practical  suggestions  respecting  the 
way  in  which  he  may  attain  to  godliness  and  enrich 
his  humanity. 

In  the  remaining  lectures  of  this  course  it  will  be 
my  aim  to  collate  and  arrange  such  suggestions  as 
these  and  to  make  them  available  as  far  as  possible  for 
the  guidance  of  those  who  are  studying  for  the  minis- 
try and  for  those  who  have  the  awful  responsibility 
of  training  them.  In  everything  that  I  say  I  shall 
have  in  mind  the  Yale  School  of  Religion  although 
it  may  be  that  my  remarks  will  have  a  wider  applica- 
tion. It  is,  of  course,  our  hope  and  prayer  that  some 
of  the  great  preachers  of  to-morrow  may  be  nurtured 
in  this  institution.  It  is  interesting  and  edifying  to 
learn  about  the  prophets  of  the  past.  It  is  important 
to  consider  the  principles  of  preaching.  It  is  essen- 
tial to  pray  God  that  He  raise  up  throughout  the 
world  living  voices  to  counsel  and  exhort  His  people. 
But  in  the  meantime  we  must  not  act  as  if  such  prin- 
ciples and  prayers  were  without  personal  application 
to  us.  On  the  contrary,  we  must  ourselves  be  like 
volunteers  eager  to  be  called  into  active  service.  We 
must  be  fitting  ourselves  to  be  efficient  instruments  in 
God's  hands.  When  God  looks  to  Yale  for  messen- 
gers He  must  not  turn  sadly  away.  It  must  be 
written  hereafter  of  this  institution  that  it  has  been 
a  veritable  nursery  of  prophets. 


30  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

As  I  bring  my  introductory  lecture  to  a  close 
perhaps  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  call  up  before  your 
minds  the  St.  Gaudens  statue  of  Phillips  Brooks. 
You  are  all  familiar  with  it.  The  sculptor,  with  an 
artist's  insight,  has  portrayed  that  which  we  fain 
would  see  in  every  pulpit.  There  stands  the  speaker, 
— strong,  vigorous,  erect;  while  just  behind  him  and 
towering  above  his  head  is  the  figure  of  Our  Lord,  at 
once  the  inspiration  of  the  messenger  and  the  object 
of  his  loyalty;  a  Presence,  dim-descried  but  real,  felt 
rather  than  seen.  It  is  only  in  the  comforting  assur- 
ance of  this  unseen  Presence  that  one  dare  speak  in 
the  same  lectureship  in  which  there  once  was  heard 
that  messenger's  clear  call. 

To  the  lecturer,  however,  as  well  as  to  the  preacher, 
it  is  an  encouragement  to  remember  that  his  capacity 
is  the  limit  of  his  responsibility.  While  we  do  right 
when  we  attempt  great  things  for  God  and  expect 
great  things  of  Him,  yet  He  exacts,  in  addition  to 
the  talent,  only  that  increment  which  honest  effort 
can  produce.  To  essay  lectures  upon  preaching  is  an 
act  of  courage.  To  believe  that  God  may  find  use  for 
them  is  an  act  of  faith.  Neither  courage  nor  faith, 
however,  will  be  wanting  to  the  man  who  prays ;  and 
it  is  in  the  power  of  prayer  that  the  lecturer  and  the 
preacher  alike  must  address  themselves  to  their  tasks. 
While  the  careful  preparation  of  the  discourse  is  a 
duty  which  the  speaker  must  by  no  means  omit,  yet 
the  careful  preparation  of  himself  is  the  more  impor- 
tant matter  of  the  two.  If  a  man's  heart  is  right  with 
God  and  filled  with  an  eager  desire  to  reveal  the 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PEW  31 

Father  to  His  children,  the  thought  bestowed  upon 
preparation  will  not  be  anxious  thought. 

If  the  man's  knees  are  used  as  much  as  his  head  he 
may  be  well  assured  that  in  answer  to  earnest  suppli- 
cation it  will  in  that  same  hour  be  revealed  to  him 
what  things  he  shall  speak. 


II 

THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD 

In  my  first  lecture  I  ventured  upon  a  working  defi- 
nition of  preaching.  It  is  the  use  of  speech  in  public 
with  intent  to  reveal  God  to  man. 

This  attempt  at  definition  is  probably  one  that 
invites  inquiry  rather  than  answers  it.  Perhaps  it 
serves  merely  to  emphasize  difficulties,  not  to  remove 
them.  One  thing,  however,  it  seems  to  make  clear. 
The  preacher,  in  order  to  set  about  his  task  intelli- 
gently, must  ascertain  in  advance  what  religious 
conceptions  the  man  in  the  pew  already  possesses. 
The  preacher  should  avoid  the  mistake  of  rating  his 
hearers  too  high.  He  will  be  wise  if  he  accords  to 
them  at  least  as  much  spiritual  perception  as  they 
really  have. 

But  for  the  preacher  to  make  a  just  appraisement 
is  by  no  means  easy.  The  man  in  the  crowd  outside 
the  church  shuns  all  contact  with  the  minister.  The 
man  in  the  pew  when  sounded  upon  his  religious  ideas 
proves  to  be  either  of  the  sort  that  becomes  hideously 
embarrassed  and  maintains  an  impenetrable  reserve 
or  else  of  the  unlovely  type  that  knows  no  reserve  and, 
at  the  slightest  provocation,  talks  glibly  about  experi- 
ences that  should  be  held  sacred.  A  man  of  this  latter 
sort  is  an  unreliable  witness.  He  is  apt  to  draw  upon 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  83 

his  imagination   and  make  himself  the  hero   of   a 
spiritual  fairy  tale. 

It  is,  as  you  know,  an  old  saying  that  ministers  see 
men  at  their  best,  that  doctors  see  them  at  their  worst 
and  that  lawyers  see  them  as  they  are.  If  this  is  true, 
perhaps  I  can  be  of  some  service  to  preachers  if  I  give 
a  lawyer's  estimate  of  the  spiritual  equipment  of  the 
man  next  me  in  the  crowd.  I  have  no  disposition  to 
dispute  the  minister  who  says  he  knows  men  as  well  as 
I  do.  He  may  be  right.  All  that  I  can  say  for  myself 
is  that  I  have  had  large  opportunity  to  gauge  the 
crowd-consciousness,  because  my  daily  work  is  done 
among  the  crowd.  Perhaps  I  do  not  talk  with  a  man 
directly  about  his  religious  ideas.  Our  conversation 
has  to  do  with  his  business  problems  or  his  domestic 
difficulties.  Quite  incidentally,  however,  he  discloses 
his  conception  of  the  game  of  life  and  of  the  rules  that 
govern  it.  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  the  man  next  me  in  the  crowd,  whether  he 
is  or  is  not  an  occasional  church-goer,  has  an  idea  of 
God  that  is  too  hazy  to  be  communicable.  If  you 
essay  to  draw  him  out,  he  betrays  signs  of  nervousness 
as  if  fearful  that  an  attempt  at  statement  will  make 
him  lose  his  hold  on  the  modicum  of  belief  that  he  has. 
His  God  is  the  God  of  whom  he  heard  in  childhood. 
Experience  has  neither  matured  nor  enriched  the  con- 
ception. If  he  prays,  it  is  apt  to  be  a  prayer  his 
mother  taught  him.  If  he  should  attempt  to  talk  with 
God  in  prayer,  even  if  no  one  else  were  nigh,  it  is 
probable  that  his  self-consciousness  would  almost 
suffocate  him. 


34  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Occasionally  I  find  a  man  who  has  learned  a  cate- 
chism or  is  able  to  make  some  other  formal  statement 
of  his  beliefs.  Not  seldom  he  smiles  apologetically 
while  he  utters  the  words,  as  if  disclaiming  any  very 
definite  appreciation  of  their  meaning.  The  rare  man 
is  he  who  has  found  a  friend  in  God  and  knows  Him 
to  be  a  companion  in  happiness  and  a  very  present 
help  in  trouble. 

I  have  no  reason  to  overdraw  the  picture.  I  am 
trying  to  state  the  situation  as  I  believe  it  to  be.  If 
the  preacher  is  to  do  real  preaching  he  must  see  men 
as  they  are.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that 
you  can  do  little  for  a  man  if  he  feels  that  you  mis- 
understand him.  On  the  other  hand,  to  be  understood 
by  another  is  the  starting  point  of  friendship.  I  have 
pondered  sometimes  upon  the  deeper  significance  of 
Saint  John's  testimony  to  Our  Lord's  insight,  "He 
needed  not  that  any  should  testify  of  man;  for  he 
knew  what  was  in  man."1  I  have  wondered  whether 
the  apostle  was  thinking  of  the  first  day  that  he  and 
Saint  Andrew  spent  in  communion  with  Our  Lord. 
I  can  imagine  what  it  must  have  meant  to  Saint  John 
to  find  a  man  who  understood  him  and  at  the  same 
time  seemed  to  know  God.  Understanding,  disciple- 
ship,  friendship,  love.  This  was  the  natural  sequence. 
If  after  that  experience  anyone  showed  a  disposition 
to  tell  Our  Lord  what  a  certain  man  was  like,  no 
doubt  Saint  John  was  tempted  to  break  in  with  a 
half -impatient  interruption:  "No  one  need  under- 

1  St.  John,  ii.,  24,  25. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  35 

take  to  tell  Him  about  men.  He  knows  what  is  in 
man."  It  is  possible,  too,  that  the  obvious  soundness 
of  Our  Lord's  judgments  of  men  predisposed  them  to 
accept  implicitly  what  He  told  them  of  the  Father. 
Men  are  wont  to  confide  in  a  speaker  who  is  evidently 
master  of  his  subject.  The  converse  is  also  true.  "He 
doesn't  know  what  he  is  talking  about"  is  often  a 
man's  last  observation  before  closing  his  ears  to  the 
rest  of  the  sermon. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  am  urging  the  import- 
ance to  the  preacher  of  a  correct  appraisement  of  the 
man  in  the  pew.  My  own  conviction  is  that  in  the 
great  majority  of  instances  thoughts  of  God  play  no 
appreciable  part  in  his  daily  life.  He  "believes"  in 
God.  Certainly.  He  recognizes  that  his  belief  is 
something  to  be  clung  to.  He  suspects  that  the  belief 
might  become  a  real  power  in  his  life  and  he  hopes 
that  some  day  it  will  be.  In  the  meanwhile  he  is  like 
a  man  holding  in  his  hand  an  unopened  telegram.  He 
knows  it  is  important  but  he  is  half  afraid  to  read  it. 

Notwithstanding  all  his  boasted  strength  and  inde- 
pendence there  is  something  infinitely  pathetic  about 
the  man  in  the  American  crowd.  "We  do  not  know 
where  we  are  going  but  let  us  get  there  as  quickly  as 
possible."  This  is  said  to  be  the  philosophy  of  many 
of  our  contemporaries.  To  be  left  alone  with  his 
thoughts  is  to  many  Americans  an  experience  to 
shrink  from.  Watch  a  man  of  business  in  the  railway 
station  about  to  board  his  train  for  a  journey,  long  or 
short.  With  feverish  eagerness  he  is  laying  in  a  stock 
of  newspapers  which  will  serve  to  keep  him  from 


36  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

thinking  until  he  reaches  his  destination.  If  you 
observe  him  in  his  place  in  the  car,  you  will  see  him 
making  his  way  quickly  but  thoroughly  from  one  end 
of  a  newspaper  to  the  other.  As  fast  as  he  finishes  one 
he  throws  it  upon  the  floor,  seizes  another  and  with 
unabated  zest  devours  a  slightly  different  version  of 
the  same  events,  always  treating  the  important  and 
the  trivial  with  strict  impartiality.  You  may  see 
the  same  spectacle  in  the  street-cars,  on  ferryboats,  in 
barbers'  chairs,  at  bootblack  stands  and  in  every 
situation  in  which  men  might  otherwise  be  taking 
advantage  of  an  opportunity  to  stop  and  think.  Such 
people  cannot  possibly  know  the  refreshment  of  com- 
munion with  the  Unseen.  They  have  no  reservoir  of 
spiritual  power  upon  which  to  draw  in  time  of  need. 
If  you  are  ever  with  a  man  from  the  crowd  when 
serious  illness  lays  its  hand  on  wife  or  child  your  heart 
will  ache  when  you  see  his  utter  hopelessness  or  note 
his  mute  appeal  to  you  for  help  to  express  himself  in 
prayer.  When  he  stands  beside  the  new-made  grave 
he  is  of  all  men  the  most  miserable. 

If  we  reflect  a  little  we  shall  agree  that  it  would  be 
surprising  if  the  situation  were  different.  Why 
should  we  expect  Americans  to  be  rich  in  faith?  Of 
religious  education  in  this  country  I  shall  have  some- 
thing to  say  in  another  lecture.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
conditions  of  our  daily  life  do  not  tend  to  develop  our 
latent  spiritual  capacities.  We  do  not  always  realize 
the  importance  of  these  conditions  as  factors  in  deter- 
mining our  attitude  toward  the  Unseen.  George 
Adam  Smith  reminds  us  of  the  difference  between  the 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  37 

climate  of  Syria  and  of  Egypt  as  bearing  upon  the 
religious  ideas  of  the  Hebrews  and  of  the  Egyptians. 
In  Egypt  man  has  but  to  link  his  own  operations  to 
those  of  the  Nile  and  the  fruits  of  the  year  are  inevit- 
able. In  Syria,  on  the  other  hand,  "a  purely  mechani- 
cal conception  of  nature  as  something  certain  and 
inevitable,  whose  processes  are  more  or  less  under 
men's  control,  is  impossible;  and  the  imagination  is 
roused  to  feel  the  presence  of  a  will  behind  nature,  in 
face  of  whose  interruptions  of  the  fruitfulness  or 
stability  of  the  land  man  is  absolutely  helpless."2  To 
such  a  climate,  Dr.  Smith  observes,  Israel's  doctrine 
of  Providence  is  partly  due.  With  us  it  may  not  be  a 
question  of  climate,  but,  unquestionably,  our  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe  are  powerfully  affected 
by  other  factors  in  our  environment.  An  enor- 
mous territory,  vast  resources  and  great  prosperity 
fill  the  imagination  of  the  man  of  privilege  and 
of  power;  while  the  sight  of  these  things  just  beyond 
his  grasp  is  becoming  a  madness  to  the  man  who  lacks 
capacity  or  has  never  had  a  chance.  Surely  there  is 
little  place  for  God  in  the  thoughts  of  either.  If  ever 
there  was  a  man  choked  with  the  cares  and  the  riches 
and  the  pleasures  of  this  life,  it  is  the  man  in  the 
American  crowd.  If  he  is  very  rich,  he  is  busy  nowa- 
days pleading  to  indictments  and  is  most  of  the  time 
in  resentful  mood.  If  he  is  a  man  of  affairs,  the  tele- 
phone rings  while  he  is  in  his  bath.  If  he  is  in  moder- 
ate circumstances  he  is  continually  looking  for  a  way 

2  The  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  p.  73. 


38  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

in  which  to  become  suddenly  rich.  If  he  is  very  poor, 
the  daily  struggle  absorbs  all  the  energy  he  has, 
except  that  with  which  he  tells  you  that  the  poor  man 
nowadays  does  not  get  a  square  deal. 

Do  not  imagine  that  I  am  attempting  to  compare 
unfavorably  the  present  with  the  past,  or  life  in 
America  with  life  in  other  countries.  I  am  without 
sufficient  knowledge  to  make  such  a  comparison,  even 
if  one  were  worth  while.  I  am  merely  insisting  that 
our  environment  does  not  tend  to  drive  us  to  thoughts 
of  God  and  that  the  man  in  the  crowd  in  fact  gets 
small  comfort  out  of  his  stock  of  religious  beliefs.  If 
I  am  right,  and  if  the  object  of  preaching  is  to  reveal 
God  to  man,  then  this  is  the  day  of  the  preacher's 
opportunity.  To-day,  at  least  as  much  as  in  Saint 
Paul's  time,  he  should  be  walking  with  his  eyes  about 
him,3  not  as  a  fool  but  as  a  wise  man,  buying  up  for 
himself4  the  opportunity  that  is  never  so  cheap  as 
when  the  days  are  evil.  His  task  is  so  to  interpret  life 
to  each  man  that  he  will  begin  to  discover  traces  of 
God's  Presence  all  about  him.  The  man  in  the  crowd 
is  apt  to  go  through  life  as  the  city  man  goes  through 
the  woods.  There  are  to  him  no  signs  of  invisible 
presences.  The  lightest  snowfall,  however,  should  be 
enough  to  make  him  realize  how  blind  he  has  been. 
Tracks  of  all  sorts  and  running  in  every  direction 

3  Ephesians,  v.,  15  et  seq. 

4  'E£ayopa£o/>ievos.     The  use  of  the  middle  voice  seems  to  me 
significant.     The  idea  is  that  in  evil  days  one  should  buy  up 
opportunity  for  himself.     The  market  of  spiritual  opportunity  is 
the  only  one  that  a  man  is  justified  in  cornering. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  39 

reveal  to  him  the  truth  that  instead  of  a  deserted 
wilderness  the  wood  is  a  teeming  community.  Some 
men  have  a  greater  aptitude  than  others  for  reading 
wood-signs.  Occasionally  you  find  a  man  who  can 
never  learn  to  see  anything  in  the  wood  but  the  trees ; 
and  even  the  trees  he  cannot  distinguish  from  one 
another.  But  as  a  rule  it  is  merely  a  matter  of  train- 
ing. Through  opportunity  and  effort  the  eyes  are 
taught  to  see  and  the  ears  to  hear.  The  man  in  the 
crowd  is  waiting  for  the  preacher  who  can  reinterpret 
the  world  to  him  and  make  him  realize  that  life  is  full 
of  God. 

In  the  course  of  these  lectures  we  must  ask  our- 
selves what  agencies  other  than  preaching  can  be 
pressed  into  the  service  of  supplying  the  American 
with  eyes  and  ears.  If  the  crowd  outside  the  church 
is  so  much  greater  than  the  crowd  inside,  either  the 
outsiders  will  remain  in  darkness  or  their  darkness 
will  be  displaced  otherwise  than  by  voices  from  the 
pulpit.  The  possibility  of  a  propaganda  of  religious 
education  must  be  taken  into  account.  Special  evan- 
gelistic effort  to  reach  the  masses  is  a  matter  seriously 
to  be  considered.  How,  if  at  all,  the  churches  may 
conserve  the  results  attained  by  Sunday's  preaching 
is  a  problem  yet  to  be  solved.  But  these  questions 
must  not  be  confused  with  our  more  immediate  in- 
quiry— namely,  how  can  the  preacher  of  to-day  best 
use  his  opportunity  to  reveal  God  to  the  man  in  the 
pew? 

Perhaps  it  will  aid  our  thinking  if  we  picture  to 
ourselves  a  Sunday  morning  scene  that  is  familiar  to 


40  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

all  of  us.  We  can  summon  before  our  mind's  eye  a 
man  undeveloped  as  respects  his  religious  ideas  and 
all  unconscious  of  his  spiritual  needs.  From  some 
motive  which  need  not  now  be  discussed  he  takes  his 
place  in  church.  Sermon-time  comes.  He  and  others 
like  him  look  up  at  the  preacher  and  there  is  a  moment 
of  silence.  It  is  not  a  bad  plan  for  the  preacher  to 
look  his  hearers  in  the  eye  before  he  begins  to  speak. 
The  message  is,  of  course,  already  prepared,  but  there 
should  also  be  the  present  yearning  of  the  soul  to  be  of 
real  help  to  the  man  in  the  pew.  There  sit  the  people, 
perhaps  a  handful,  perhaps  a  crowded  congregation. 
Look  into  their  faces,  brother  man.  If  anything  can 
move  you  it  is  those  upturned  eyes.  In  some  there  is 
a  mute  appeal  for  help.  In  others  there  is  a  look  of 
determination  to  withstand  whatever  you  may  have 
to  say.  In  others  there  is  the  listless  interrogation, 
"What  will  this  babbler  say?"  A  glance  at  some  of 
those  eyes  should  be  enough  to  stir  your  manhood 
to  its  core.  "O  God,"  you  should  inwardly  ejaculate, 
"give  me  at  least  a  little  that  I  may  pass  it  on  to 
them." 

But  herein  is  the  tragedy — that  however  earnest 
the  preacher  and  how  glowing  soever  his  zeal,  he  will 
miss  his  mark  unless  he  is  able  to  perceive  what  is 
going  on  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  What  in  fact  is 
usually  meted  out  to  the  listening  crowd?  I  think  it 
safe  to  say  that  in  a  very  great  number  of  cases  it  is 
a  sermon  replete  with  references  to  spiritual  experi- 
ences which  the  man  in  the  crowd  does  not  have  and 
supposing  a  greater  knowledge  of  God  than  the  man 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  41 

in  the  crowd  in  fact  possesses.  As  far  as  mere  use  of 
terms  is  concerned,  preachers  are  apt  to  forget  that 
much  of  the  language  which  to  them  has  a  precise 
theological  meaning  is  understood  dimly  or  not  at  all 
by  the  man  in  the  pew.  Occasionally  at  home  I  begin 
to  talk  about  some  case  on  which  I  am  working  and  of 
which  my  mind  is  full.  I  have  not  gone  far  before  I 
am  reminded  that  some  of  the  terms  I  am  using  are 
meaningless  to  the  uninitiated.  I  am  surprised. 
"What?  Not  understand  the  meaning  of  these 
words  ?  They  are  part  of  the  daily  vocabulary  of  the 
lawyer."  Doubtless;  but  I  must  remember  that  I  am 
not  talking  to  lawyers.  And  the  preacher  should  not 
forget  that  in  his  case  it  is  not  merely  a  question  of 
understanding  terms  but  a  question  of  having  or  not 
having  the  experiences  of  which  he  familiarly  speaks. 
I  have  in  mind  such  common  words  as  God,  prayer, 
forgiveness,  immortality,  and  not  merely  terms  sel- 
dom used  except  by  theologians. 

Let  me  try  to  make  my  meaning  more  clear  by 
giving  some  instances  of  the  way  in  which  pastors 
often  make  the  mistake  of  feeding  meat  to  babes.  You 
will  agree,  I  think,  that  if  the  man  in  the  pew  knows 
little  of  God,  it  must  follow  that  for  him  prayer  is 
not  much  more  than  a  form  of  words.  The  decent 
humility  which  characterizes  him  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  a  sense  of  sin.  The  need  of  redemption  is  to 
him  not  obvious.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  is  not  what 
he  would  describe  as  a  live  issue.  The  suggestion  of 
eternity  makes  him  nervous.  A  life  after  death  seems 
to  him  at  best  but  a  leap  in  the  dark. 


42  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Try  to  imagine  what  kind  of  an  experience  to  such 
a  man  is  an  exhortation  to  prayer,  a  plea  for  the 
acceptance  of  a  Redeemer,  or  a  dissertation  upon  the 
condition  of  the  blest  in  Paradise.  Allusions  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  Atonement,  the  Incarna- 
tion are  as  nearly  meaningless  to  most  American  men 
as  are  references  to  abstruse  scientific  principles  of 
which  they  have  heard  all  their  lives  but  have  never 
understood.  I  delivered  an  address  a  few  years  ago 
at  a  large  so-called  "church"  school  for  boys.  I 
referred  to  the  Incarnation.  Afterward  one  of  the 
masters  expressed  regret  that  I  had  not  explained 
what  I  meant.  "The  boys  may  have  heard  the  word," 
he  said,  "but  they  have  no  idea  what  it  means." 

I  must  pause  at  this  point  to  guard  myself  against 
serious  misunderstanding. 

In  the  first  place  I  am  not  overlooking  the  fact  that 
there  are  throughout  the  country  many  well  instructed 
congregations  of  devout  people.  To  these  my  re- 
marks may  have  little  application.  My  observation 
leads  me  to  believe,  however,  that  even  in  congrega- 
tions where  the  pastor  has  labored  to  teach,  there  are 
many  men  whose  consciousness  has  not  been  so  much 
as  dented  in  the  process. 

In  the  next  place,  I  do  not  mean  to  be  understood 
as  impugning  the  validity  of  the  teachings  to  which  I 
have  referred  or  to  cast  in  my  lot  with  those  brethren 
with  little  insight  who  are  always  giving  out  news- 
paper interviews  about  "creeds  outworn."  On  the 
contrary,  I  regard  it  as  the  greatest  happiness  of  my 
life  that  I  have  been  able  to  accept  the  Christian  faith 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  43 

in  what  I  believe  to  be  its  entirety,  however  far  I 
may  be  from  the  realization  of  that  faith  in  conduct.  I 
can  wish  for  my  dearest  friend  no  greater  blessing 
than  this.  I  believe  with  my  whole  heart  that  the  most 
important  aspects  of  God's  revealed  Truth  are  within 
the  ken  of  every  man  in  the  crowd,  however  much  his 
spiritual  capacity  may  differ  from  his  brother's.  But 
I  solemnly  protest  that  you  must  get  something  like 
a  working  conception  of  God  into  his  mind  before  you 
can  edify  him  by  the  proclamation  of  Christian  doc- 
trine. Once  give  him  even  a  glimpse  of  God  and  you 
can  proceed  by  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line, 
here  a  little  and  there  a  little,  until  you  have  helped 
him  to  add  many  cubits  to  his  spiritual  stature.  I 
often  hear  it  said  that  the  man  in  the  pew  is  not  inter- 
ested in  theology  and  that  he  does  not  like  doctrinal 
sermons.  Nobody  likes  what  he  does  not  understand. 
There  are  few  things  more  unprofitable  for  the  man 
in  the  pulpit  or  for  his  hearers  than  that  the  preacher 
should  spend  half  an  hour  expounding  a  truth  which 
derives  all  its  significance  from  a  more  fundamental 
truth  of  which  his  hearers  happen  to  know  nothing. 
There  is  nothing  peculiar  to  religion  in  such  a  situa- 
tion. We  have  all  noted  the  mute  agony  of  the  father 
of  the  family  escorted  to  a  symphony  concert  by  a 
music-loving  wife  and  daughters.  He  is  not  tone  deaf 
by  any  means,  but  there  is  much  for  him  to  learn 
before  he  can  really  appreciate  Bach  or  Wagner.  The 
man  in  the  pew  must  be  made  aware  of  the  unseen 
world  before  he  can  be  interested  in  its  life.  God  must 
precede  theology.  The  man  must  be  taught  to  face 


44  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

the  problems  of  life  of  which  Christian  doctrines  are 
intended  to  be  the  solution.  The  trouble  with  much 
preaching  is  that  it  is  directed  at  the  solution  of  diffi- 
culties of  the  very  existence  of  which  the  man  in  the 
pew  is  not  aware. 

I  do  not  advocate  stirring  up  difficulties  in  a  man's 
mind  for  the  pleasure  of  suggesting  answers.  I  sub- 
mit, however,  that  stupid  indifference  to  great  reli- 
gious truths  is  a  thing  from  which  any  man  should,  if 
possible,  be  rescued.  The  way  to  begin  the  rescuing 
process  is  to  confront  him  with  the  God  of  the 
universe. 

It  will  be  said,  no  doubt,  that  I  am  inverting  the 
whole  process  of  revelation.  I  am  clamoring  that  the 
man  in  the  crowd  be  shown  the  Father  at  the  outset  of 
spiritual  life,  whereas  the  vision  is  only  for  those  who 
have  climbed  painfully  through  every  other  experi- 
ence till  in  this  one  they  receive  their  supreme  reward. 
It  was  because  in  no  other  way  could  man  attain  to 
knowledge  of  God  that  Christ  came.  It  is  futile, 
then,  to  suggest  to  the  preacher  "Show  us  the  Father 
and  it  sufficeth  us."  My  answer  is,  I  am  not  asking 
that  a  way  to  the  Father  be  shown  otherwise  than 
through  the  Son.  I  am  not  at  the  moment  even  think- 
ing of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  I  am  suggesting  that 
before  there  can  be  a  revelation  to  the  man  in  the 
crowd  either  of  Fatherhood  or  of  Sonship,  he  must 
have  at  least  a  rudimentary  idea  of  the  word  "God." 
It  seems  to  me  to  be  idle  to  affirm  Deity  of  Our  Lord 
if  the  man  who  hears  the  affirmation  does  not  know 
what  Deity  is. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  45 

I  suppose  that  the  avenues  of  thought  which  lead  to 
God  are  countless.  As  I  understand  the  matter,  the 
man  who  sees  a  different  god  at  the  end  of  every  such 
vista  is  a  polytheist.  The  man  who  perceives  that  all 
the  avenues  converge  in  one  God  is  a  monotheist.  We 
Christians  are  among  those  who  rejoice  in  the  revela- 
tion of  a  God  Who  is  the  personification  of  all  that  is 
great  and  noble  and  good.  The  heathen  with  his  flock 
of  gods  seems  to  us  incapable  of  divesting  himself  of 
his  power  of  control  over  them.  They  are  his  gods 
and  they  must  do  as  he  likes.  We  insist  that  religion 
took  a  long  step  forward  when  men  discovered  that 
they  were  in  the  hands  of  God  and  not  He  in  theirs.5 
Whenever  in  history  a  man  has  seemed  to  impose  his 
will  upon  God,  terrible  consequences  have  ensued. 
A  strong  man,  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  his 
cause,  may  proclaim  it  as  the  cause  of  God.  If  pos- 
sessed of  adequate  force,  he  may  seem  for  the  time 
being  to  have  made  his  declaration  effective.  Those 
over  whom  the  spell  of  his  leadership  has  been  cast 
are  ready  to  die  for  his  cause.  They,  like  him,  are 
able  to  conceive  of  themselves  as  instruments  in  the 
hand  of  God.  A  powerful  leader  who  fears  neither 
God  nor  man  and  can  remark  grimly  that  Providence 
is  always  on  the  side  of  the  heavy  battalions,  is  indeed 
an  enemy  of  humanity.  But  the  leader  of  equal 
power  grho  has  moulded  God  to  suit  himself  and 
firmly  believes  that  he  is  doing  God's  work  may  prove 

8  For  asjjowerful  and  luminous  statement  of  the  "crisis  moment 
of  religious^evelopment/'  see  The  Witness  to  the  Influence  of 
Christ,  by^The  Rt.  Rev.  Wm.  Boyd  Carpenter,  D.D.,  p.  48. 


46  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

in  the  end  to  be  the  more  destructive  agent  of  the 
two.6 

"This,"  you  will  say,  "is  true  and  trite.  But  what 
has  it  to  do  with  preaching?"  Much,  every  way.  If 
the  preacher  is  to  reveal  God  to  man  it  is  a  matter  of 
profound  concern  what  sort  of  a  God  it  is  that  is  to 
be  disclosed.  We  surely  shall  agree  that  the  revela- 
tion must  not  be  of  a  tribal  god  or  even  of  a  national 
god.  I  understand  a  national  god  to  be  the  personi- 
fication of  that  national  policy  which  at  the  time 
happens  to  be  prevalent.  If  a  nation  is  a  martial 
nation,  their  god  is  a  god  of  war.  If  more  territory 
is  needed  then  expansion  is  god's  will.  A  whole  peo- 
ple may  unite  in  creating  a  god  of  this  sort  and  they 
may  dress  him  up  in  the  attributes  which  they  have 
stolen  from  the  God  of  the  universe.  They  may 
develop  for  their  god  the  kind  of  partisan  enthusiasm 
which  the  Philistines  had  for  their  visible  champion 
Goliath.  Everybody  will  agree  that  an  idol  need  not 
be  a  graven  image.  I  am  an  idolater  if  I  make  to 
myself  any  god  but  One  of  Whom  universal  Father- 
hood may  be  affirmed. 

The  God  whom  the  preacher  is  to  reveal  must  be 
a  Being  with  all  the  attributes  with  which  the  con- 
sensus of  Christendom  has  invested  Him  and  not 
merely  with  some  of  them.  If  He  is  the  God  of  all 
men  everywhere,  then  a  declaration  of  war,  under  the 

6  For  a  sympathetic  explication  of  Germany's  present  concep- 
tion of  God,  see  "Theocentric  Theology  in  Peace  and  in  War/'  by 
Prof.  Dr.  Erich  Schader,  of  the  University  of  Kiel,  The  Construc- 
tive Quarterly,  Vol.  III.,  p.  39. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  47 

auspices  of  a  national  god,  is  an  act  of  attempted 
secession  from  the  Divine  Commonwealth.  Recipro- 
cally, to  repudiate  the  missionary  obligation  is  to  deny 
to  some  men  the  right  to  be  included  in  that  Common- 
wealth. To  preach  the  mercy  of  God  and  to  omit  all 
reference  to  His  justice  is  to  encourage  people  to  sin 
with  a  sense  of  security.  To  preach  a  God  who  is 
all-sovereign  and  to  be  silent  respecting  His  Father- 
hood is  to  picture  a  God  to  whom  the  man  in  the 
crowd  has  no  means  of  access.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
enlarge  upon  God's  care  for  the  individual  without 
constant  reminder  that  He  is  Lord  also  of  Heaven 
and  Earth  is  to  belittle  God  and  to  make  Him  less 
marvelous  than  His  own  creation. 

It  is  my  observation  that  God's  face  can  be  veiled 
effectually  by  at  least  two  classes  of  preachers — those 
who  deify  man  and  those  who  humanize  God.  The 
one  class  idealize  humanity  by  regarding  Our  Lord 
as  being  merely  the  best  of  the  race.  By  thus  sub- 
stituting the  Seeker  for  the  Revealer  they  really  de- 
prive us  of  the  Way  to  the  Father.7  The  other  class 

7  "Eliminate  from  Jesus  Christ  the  truths  and  facts  expressed 
in  the  distinctively  and  specifically  Christian  terms  Incarnation 
and  Resurrection,  and  you  drop  Him  out  of  the  category  of 
Realizer,  Revealer  and  Giver,  into  that  of,  still,  Seeker.  He  is 
not  even,  in  any  real  sense,  Seer;  for  it  is  manifestly  true  in 
itself,  quite  apart  from  our  Lord's  having  said  so,  that  'No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,'  or  is  able  to  know  or  empowered  to 
communicate  'the  things  truly  given  us  of  God'  which  constitute 
the  Gospel."  W.  P.  DuBose,  S.  T.  D.,  "A  Constructive  Treat- 
ment of  Christianity,"  The  Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  I., 
p.  13. 


48  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

keep  our  gaze  fastened  upon  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  such  an  extent  that  the  very  affirmation  of 
His  Deity  has  the  practical  consequence  of  causing 
the  man  in  the  pew  always  to  picture  God  as  a  Gali- 
lean peasant. 

A  preacher  can  do  as  much  harm  by  distorting  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  as  he  can  by  ignoring  it 
altogether.  If  a  man  is  given  to  pondering  over 
the  mystery  of  the  universe  and  the  immeasurable 
stretches  of  time  and  space,  he  is  apt  to  think  himself 
into  pantheism  or  to  gain  the  conception  of  an  al- 
mighty but  far-distant  God.  In  either  event  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Incarnation  is  good  news  to  him.  The 
contemplation  of  Jesus  Christ  helps  the  man  to  make 
his  God  a  personal  God.  The  revelation  of  Divine 
concern  for  the  humblest  individual  brings  him  into 
living  contact  with  the  Lord  that  made  the  heavens. 
The  great  God  becomes  all  the  greater  to  him  when 
perceived  to  be  a  Person.  The  combination  of  infinite 
power  and  infinite  compassion  offers  satisfaction  of 
every  spiritual  need. 

To  leave  Jesus  Christ  out  of  account  means,  for 
most  men,  to  deprive  them  of  the  consolations  of  reli- 
gion. It  is  of  vital  importance,  therefore,  to  proclaim 
to  a  suffering  race  the  truth  that  God  is  such  a  one 
as  to  be  made  Man. 

Suppose,  however,  that  a  man  is  not  given  to  pon- 
dering about  any  other  mysteries  than  the  currency 
and  the  tariff.  Suppose  that  he  is  so  surfeited  with 
the  consumption  of  time  present  that  he  neither 
relishes  time  past  nor  has  appetite  for  time  future. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  49 

Next  suppose  that  such  a  man  is  among  those  whom 
I  pictured  a  while  ago  looking  up  at  the  preacher 
about  to  begin  his  sermon.  He,  like  the  man  at  the 
concert,  has  probably  been  enticed  to  church  by  his 
solicitous  wife  and  daughters  and  during  sermon-time 
is  kept  in  his  place  by  the  ties  of  family  affection.  I 
fear  that  under  such  circumstances  the  preacher  will 
make  little  headway  if  he  undertakes  to  expound  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  to  proclaim  the  appear- 
ance of  God  in  human  life  and  to  tell  of  Our  Lord's 
compassion  for  the  poor  and  sinful.  What  effect  is 
produced  upon  the  mind  of  the  man  in  the  pew?  I 
have  no  doubt  whatever  about  the  answer.  He  gains 
a  definite  and  appreciative  conception  of  Our  Lord's 
treatment  of  the  poor  and  the  sinful,  but  the  rest  of 
the  discourse  means  little  to  him.  He  knows,  of 
course,  that  there  are  sinners  and  poor  people.  He 
perhaps  registers  a  resolve  to  put  more  money  into 
the  plate.  As  the  faculties  by  which  God  is  known 
have  atrophied  long  ago  the  preacher's  assertion  of 
the  Deity  of  Christ  is  regarded  as  one  of  those  prop- 
ositions which  the  minister  possibly  understands  but 
the  people  certainly  do  not.  The  net  result  of  the 
discourse  is  that  the  man  comes  out  of  his  pew  just  as 
much  of  a  materialist  as  when  he  went  in.  The 
preacher's  references  to  Our  Lord  have  helped  him 
a  little  just  as  he  would  have  been  helped  by  any  other 
good  example  cited  to  him.  He  is  conscious,  how- 
ever, of  a  slight  widening  of  the  gulf  between  himself 
and  the  shore  on  which  stand  the  ladies  of  his  family 


50  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

and  the  preacher.  He  is  dimly  aware  of  a  set  of  ideas 
that  they  have  and  he  lacks. 

I  accordingly  venture  the  assertion  that  just  as 
religion  loses  its  consoling  power  if  the  Deity  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  left  out  of  account,  so  religion  loses  its  com- 
pelling power  if  we  do  not  gain  the  vision  of  the  God 
that  sitteth  above  the  cherubim.  To  preach  the  Son 
as  the  way  to  the  Father  means  that  due  heed  will  be 
given  to  all  the  attributes  of  the  Godhead.  To  preach 
nothing  but  the  Son  to  a  generation  of  materialists 
means  that  the  next  generation  will  be,  if  possible, 
more  godless  than  this.  You  will  observe  how  insist- 
ent I  am  upon  a  conception  of  the  one  God  that  is 
rich  enough  to  include  a  differentiation  of  Persons. 
I  refer  to  this  because  some  of  my  friends  insist 
that  the  cure  for  godlessness  is  to  abandon  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Deity  of  Our  Lord  and  to  substitute  the 
Arian  conception.  Their  insistence  is  based  upon  an 
assumption  which  I  believe  to  be  contrary  to  fact. 
They  assume  that  the  practical  effect  of  rejecting  the 
Trinitarian  conception  is  to  set  men  pondering  on  the 
Divine  and  so  to  stimulate  character-building  by  per- 
meating all  of  life  with  God.  My  observation  leads 
me  to  conclude  that,  on  the  contrary,  what  really 
happens  to  my  friends  under  such  circumstances  is 
that  God  as  a  Person  disappears  entirely  from  their 
horizon.  Instead  of  enriching  the  idea  of  God  and 
making  it  dynamic,  they  use  it  more  or  less  uncon- 
sciously as  a  symbol  of  that  form  of  social  service  in 
which  they  happen  to  be  most  interested. 

I  know  a  distinguished  layman  who  is  most  earnest 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  51 

and  outspoken  in  his  protests  against  the  Trinitarian 
conception.  By  attention  to  his  utterances  I  have 
satisfied  myself  that  his  idea  of  God  is  Preventive 
Medicine.  I  know  others  whose  God  is  a  sort  of 
Honorary  President  of  the  Society  for  Organizing 
Charity.  Some  conceive  God  as  concerned  chiefly 
with  municipal  hygiene  and  the  housing  problem. 
Still  others  think  of  Him  as  willing  to  speak  through 
our  public  school  system  although  only  on  condition 
that  in  the  system  itself  there  should  be  no  reference 
to  Him.  And  so  it  goes.  Instead  of  a  conception 
which  tends  to  become  grander  and  more  compelling, 
we  witness  a  steady  tendency  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. Such  people  have  not  even  a  national  or  a  tribal 
god.  They  have  merely  a  deified  special  interest. 
The  plain,  unvarnished  fact  is  that  if  no  more  com- 
pelling conception  than  this  can  be  presented  to  the 
man  in  the  crowd  we  had  better  be  frank  enough  to 
stop  altogether  our  talk  about  God  and  turn  our 
attention  to  ethical  culture. 

If  the  men  in  the  crowd  are  compelled  to  face  the 
dilemma  that  God  must  either  be  or  not  be,  a  vast 
majority  will  accept  the  former  alternative.  Most 
men  readily  perceive  that  the  universe  is  a  greater 
riddle  on  the  hypothesis  that  there  is  no  God  than 
upon  the  hypothesis  that  there  is.  The  real  test  of  a 
man's  faith  seems  to  me  to  be  presented  when  he  is 
asked  to  believe  that  the  Lord  of  the  universe  has  a 
personal  and  immediate  interest  in  him.  I  may  put 
on  a  bold  front  in  my  contact  with  other  men  and 
really  persuade  myself  that  I  am  somebody.  But 


52  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

when  I  am  alone  and  honestly  compare  myself, 
morally,  with  the  standard  of  absolute  Righteousness 
and  contrast  myself,  physically,  with  the  expanse  of 
the  Milky  Way,  how  can  I  believe  that  God  has  a 
care  for  me?  The  revelation  of  distant  Majesty  and 
overpowering  Might  would  be  a  cruelty  unless  fol- 
lowed by  the  assurance  that  God  is  actually  acces- 
sible to  the  individual.  This  assurance  the  man  in  the 
crowd  may  attain  through  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 
To  rare  men,  like  the  author  of  the  eighteenth  Psalm, 
the  assurance  may  come  in  some  other  way.  After  his 
unsurpassed  description  of  the  manifestation  of  God's 
power  in  the  storm,  he  says  with  the  quiet  confidence 
which  spiritual  experience  alone  can  beget,  "He  sent 
from  above,  He  took  me,  He  drew  me  out  of  many 
waters."  But  it  is  not  so  with  you  and  me  and  other 
men  in  the  crowd.  If  we  are  able  to  gain  the  vision 
of  God  at  all,  it  is  of  that  distant  Majesty  and  Might 
which  will  convict  us  of  sin  and  leave  us  hopeless.  It 
is  then  that  the  man  in  the  crowd  longs  for  a  com- 
fortable word — and  the  most  comfortable  of  all  words 
is  this:  that  "God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
His  Only-Begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life." 

The  preacher  need  not  be  disturbed  by  the  outcry 
of  those  who  declare  that  this  message  has  lost  its 
power.  But  he  must  begin  by  showing  men  that  the 
quality  of  their  daily  lives  is  determined  by  their  atti- 
tude toward  the  Unseen.  He  must  convince  them 
that  absorption  in  material  things  inevitably  leads  to 
selfishness  and  that  a  selfish  community  is  as  empty 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  53 

and  formless  as  primeval  chaos.  That  which  I  regard 
as  merely  the  beginning  of  the  process  of  spiritualiza- 
tion  is  thus  finely  put  by  Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody:8 
"Prosperous  people,  reckoning  their  happiness  in 
terms  of  income  and  expenditure ;  employers,  regard- 
ing their  employees  as  cogs  in  a  great  machine ;  wage- 
earners,  subdued  to  that  they  work  in  like  the  dyer's 
hand,  with  no  horizon  beyond  the  closing  hour  and  the 
pay  envelope;  poor  people  with  no  ideal  but  the  rent 
and  no  solace  but  the  saloon, — what  a  mockery  is  here 
of  a  world  of  souls,  a  spiritual  brotherhood,  an  answer 
to  the  prayer,  "Thy  Kingdom  come  ...  in  earth  as 
it  is  in  heaven' !  Into  this  world  of  materialized  aims 
enters  the  Christian  life,  utilizing  as  its  agent  a  social- 
ized Church  to  carry  the  Gospel  of  Spiritualization. 
It  looks  within  the  facts  of  social  disorder  for  their 
spiritual  causes.  It  converts  the  relief  of  the  poor 
into  a  spiritual  transaction,  conveying  not  only  food 
and  lodging,  but  courage,  self-control,  and  hope.  It 
lifts  the  relations  of  industry  from  the  level  of  a  wage- 
system  to  the  higher  plane  of  a  co-operative  system. 
It  rescues  the  social  world  from  its  slough  of  fleshly 
and  commercial  aims  and  sets  it  on  the  rock  of  moral 
idealism."  The  preacher,  in  other  words,  must  give 
to  his  people  the  vision  of  the  Spirit  of  God  brooding 
over  these  troubled  waters.  But  he  must  not  stop 
there.  He  must  reproduce  for  them,  stage  by  stage, 
the  revelation  of  the  Nature  and  Being  of  God  till  the 

8  The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World  (The  McNair 
Lectures  for  1913),  p.  228.  I  go  with  Dr.  Peabody  as  far  as 
he  goes  but  I  believe  in  going  further. 


54  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

climax  is  reached  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  vision  of  Crea- 
tion must  be  supplemented  by  the  Apocalypse.  The 
isolation  of  the  Garden  must  be  contrasted  with  that 
socialized  City  which  has  at  its  centre  the  Lamb  of 
God. 

If  the  preacher  will  in  this  order  proclaim  to  us 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  Way  to  the  Father,  he  will  find 
the  revelation  eagerly  welcomed.  He  must  recognize, 
however,  that  his  first  and  hardest  task  is  to  make  the 
godless  man  dissatisfied  with  his  condition.  To  preach 
the  Incarnation  to  a  self-satisfied  man  is  like  proclaim- 
ing the  laws  of  health  to  a  headstrong  young  person 
who  has  never  known  sickness.  There  are  people  who 
have  no  yearning  to  knit  their  souls  to  those  of  other 
men.  Personal  relations  with  other  people  mean  little 
to  them.  A  personal  relation  to  God  seems  to  them 
unthinkable.  They  even  seem  incapable  of  individual- 
izing other  men.  They  deal  with  people  in  the  mass. 
I  once  knew  the  head  of  a  school — a  clever,  strong, 
wise,  masterful  man — for  whom  the  boys  existed 
merely  as  a  group.  He  thought  of  them  only  as  "the 
student  body."  He  did  not  recognize  individuals 
when  he  met  them.  His  concern  was  with  the  aggre- 
gate. Nobody  loved  him  because  no  love  emanated 
from  him.  He  was  not  a  factor  in  anybody's  life. 
He  spoke  in  policies  and  laws.  And  both  policies  and 
laws  were  short-lived  in  their  operation,  because  they 
were  not  founded  upon  an  understanding  of  the  heart 
of  man.  To  preach  the  Incarnation  to  such  a  person 
would  be  to  talk  to  him  in  an  unknown  tongue.  He 
would  be  entirely  honest  in  his  statement  that  the  en- 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  55 

fleshment  of  Deity  is  to  him  a  thing  both  incredible 
and  repulsive.  The  real  source  of  his  difficulty,  I 
venture  to  think,  would  be  his  inability  to  conceive  of 
any  personal  relation  between  himself  and  God. 

Such  men  as  my  friend  the  headmaster  are  not 
typical  of  the  crowd.  There  are  indeed  a  few  like  him. 
Emerson,  speaking  of  Englishmen,  says  somewhere 
that  "each  of  these  islanders  is  an  island  in  himself." 
Whether  this  be  true  of  the  English  as  a  race,  I  know 
not.  Certainly  it  is  true  of  an  occasional  American. 
There  is  something  quite  baffling  but  almost  noble 
about  such  men.  To  you  and  me  who  feel  weak  and 
dependent  they  seem  strong  and  self-poised.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  suppose  that  even  in  the  hour  of 
death  their  philosophy  will  fail.  It  is  not  our  function 
to  criticise  or  condemn  them.  It  suffices  to  know  that 
they  are  not  like  the  crowd.  They  have  no  message 
for  the  crowd  because  they  have  no  strength  that  is 
communicable.  Their  religion  is  as  incapable  of 
transmission  to  others  as  their  looks  or  their  manners. 
Not  unless  the  preacher  can  make  them  feel  abjectly 
unworthy  in  the  Presence  of  God  is  there  the  least 
possibility  of  awakening  in  such  men  a  longing  for 
redemption  through  Jesus  Christ. 

I  hope  I  have  made  it  clear  that  I  differ  absolutely 
from  those  who  would  discourage  the  preaching  of  the 
Incarnation.  That  against  which  I  would  protest  is 
merely  something  that  hinders  the  effective  preaching 
of  that  great  doctrine.  Just  as  I  find  it  impossible  to 
draw  very  near  the  Father  except  through  the  Son, 
so  I  cannot  but  regret  what  seems  to  me  a  false 


56  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

emphasis  on  Our  Lord's  earthly  life.  Notwithstand- 
ing that  its  motive  is  to  vindicate  the  Deity  of  the  Son, 
its  practical  effect  is  to  concentrate  man's  attention 
upon  the  visible  and  so  to  check  that  reverent  ponder- 
ing upon  the  Unseen  which  is  the  basis  of  all  true 
religion.  Thus  unconsciously  to  separate  the  Son 
from  the  Father  is  to  focus  our  thinking  upon  human- 
ity. Even  if  it  is  earnestly  and  insistently  asserted 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  God,  the  assertion  will  mean 
nothing  to  those  to  whom  the  name  of  God  suggests 
no  vision.  And  it  will  mean  only  a  little  to  those 
whose  conception  of  God  tends  to  be  satisfied  by  any 
one  who  proves  himself  a  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners.  The  trouble  with  many  of  us  men  in  the 
crowd  is  that  we  are  not  sufficiently  aware  of  our  little- 
ness and  our  helplessness.  It  would  be  well  to  remind 
us  now  and  then  of  some  simple  facts  respecting  the 
universe — such,  for  example,  as  the  on-rushing  of  our 
sun  through  space  and  the  estimated  distance  that 
separates  us  from  Vega.  We  should  be  made  to  per- 
ceive our  relation  to  Him  Who  controls  winds  and 
waves  and  we  should  be  reminded  that  it  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Living  God.  We 
modern  Americans  seldom  experience  the  awe  which 
fills  a  man  when  he  finds  himself  in  an  overpowering 
Presence.  The  man  in  the  crowd  takes  account  only 
of  what  he  can  see  and  he  esteems  himself  to  be  as  big 
as  anything  in  sight.  The  essence  of  the  preacher's 
task  is  to  make  men  stop,  look  and  listen  for  God. 
This  cannot  nowadays  be  accomplished  by  denuncia- 
tion or  by  dogmatic  utterance.  The  need  is  for  the 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  57 

simple  process  of  interpreting  to  men  the  deeper 
meaning  of  life  and  the  familiar  facts  of  their  own 
experience. 

Unless  the  preacher  is  going  to  help  the  man  in  the 
pew  to  a  clearer  vision  of  God,  the  man  is  not  likely 
to  gain  it  at  all.  We  have  seen  that  his  environment 
will  not  suggest  it  to  him.  Certainly  he  will  not  come 
upon  it  as  a  result  of  secular  education.  We  in 
America  lay  little  stress  nowadays  upon  the  import- 
ance of  abstract  thinking.  Our  educational  ideals  are 
vocational.  We  insist  upon  a  direct  relation  between 
the  subject  of  study  and  self-support.  We  encourage 
our  young  people  to  work  as  much  as  possible  along 
lines  of  least  resistance;  whereas  the  power  to  think 
abstractly  comes  only  to  him  who  deliberately  seeks 
difficulties  for  the  sake  of  overcoming  them.  The 
mathematics  is  used  chiefly  as  a  tool.  Language-con- 
sciousness is  not  highly  prized.  We  no  longer  sit  at 
the  feet  of  the  people  who  excelled  all  others  in  devel- 
oping a  perfect  medium  of  self-expression.  We  are 
not  trained  to  ponder.  We  have  no  time  to  think  of 
anything  that  we  do  not  expect  to  use  either  to-day  or 
to-morrow;  and  the  God  that  made  the  heavens  does 
not  seem  to  us  to  belong  in  that  category.  If  the  man 
in  the  crowd  is  to  attain  to  a  knowledge  of  God  he 
must  triumph  over  his  environment  and  rise  superior 
to  his  education. 

And  was  there  ever  a  time  of  greater  need  for  a 
vision  of  the  Father?  What  lesser  thing  will  rouse  us 
from  our  abominable  self-complacency?  Our  cities 
need  moral  cleansing.  Unemployment  gives  rise  to 


58  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

spiritual  as  well  as  economic  problems.  Our  rural 
neighborhoods  are  largely  pagan.  Our  political  life 
must  be  transfigured  and  our  social  life  transformed. 
When  the  world  is  shaken  to  its  foundations  by  the 
shock  of  arms  we  grumble  a  little  because  we  feel  the 
disturbance.  Some  people  profess  to  see  in  the  war 
the  collapse  of  the  Christian  church,  if  not  of  Chris- 
tianity itself.  While  such  utterances  on  this  subject 
as  I  have  read  seem  to  me  to  be  full  of  misconceptions 
of  Christianity  and  of  ignorance  of  the  church,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  they  find  an  echo  in  multitudes 
of  minds.  Our  duty  in  the  premises  is  not  discharged 
by  engaging  in  more  or  less  academic  discussion  as  to 
who  caused  the  war ;  especially  if  we  are  merely  trying 
to  fix  on  somebody  the  blame  for  waking  us  out  of  a 
deep  sleep.  It  may  be  doubtful  who  caused  the  war 
but  it  is  certain  that  Christian  people  did  not  prevent 
it.  I  hear  a  few  earnest  souls  suggesting  that  the  war 
will  do  great  things  for  the  world.  They  forget  that 
the  world  is  served  not  by  events  but  by  men.  The 
real  question  is  whether  men  will  turn  in  such  horror 
from  the  hell  of  war  that  they  will  be  content  with 
nothing  but  the  peace  of  God.9  Nor  is  it  a  question 

9  I  wish,  however,  to  record  my  protest  against  the  "peace- 
at-any-price"  doctrine.  The  mere  fact  that  I  am  not  fighting 
does  not  prove  me  to  be  at  peace.  Peace  is  a  state  of  mind  and 
I  can  never  attain  it  if  I  persistently  refuse  to  offer  my  life  for 
my  friends.  The  man  who  would  not  go  to  war  to  prevent  a 
repetition  of  the  Lusitania  crime  may  indeed  have  plenty  of 
courage  but  he  seems  to  me  to  have  a  distorted  conception  of  the 
Christian  obligation. 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  59 

whether  other  men  will  act  thus  but  whether  you  and 
I  will.  Will  this  great  convulsion  of  human  nature 
leave  you  and  me  unchanged?  I  do  not  mean  to  ask 
whether  our  sensibilities  will  be  aroused  or  whether 
our  sympathies  are  being  mildly  stirred.  The  inquiry 
rather  is  whether  we  are  to  be  born  again.  Heroes 
are  being  produced  in  plenty.  Poetry  is  not  wholly 
dead.  There  will  be,  no  doubt,  a  war  literature  both 
virile  and  vital.  The  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth.  When  the  world  is  in  labor  shall  there  be 
brought  forth  no  prophets  ?  Are  there  not  men  within 
the  sound  of  my  voice  who  will  give  themselves  no  rest 
till  their  prayers  shall  have  opened  Heaven  and  till 
God  Himself  shall  have  given  them  a  message  for  His 
people? 

I  put  the  question  thus  because  nothing  but  inspira- 
tion will  suffice  to  equip  the  preacher  for  his  task. 

Since  preaching  implies  the  intent  to  reveal  God  to 
man,  the  preacher  must  himself  have  had  the  vision 
and  he  must  earnestly  desire  to  share  it  with  others. 
In  his  sermon  he  should  but  breathe  out  the  Spirit  of 
God  which  he  has  inhaled  during  his  preparation. 

Some  men  have  been  vouchsafed  a  vision  but  they 
have  lost  themselves  in  its  contemplation.  It  is  as  if 
Moses  had  tarried  even  longer  in  the  mount  and  had 
never  returned  to  his  people.  The  man  is  alone  with 
God  and  alone  with  God  he  remains.  The  preacher, 
however,  must  be  eager  to  report  what  he  has  heard 
and  seen  and  his  eagerness  must  proceed  from  a 
yearning  to  help  those  who  hear  him.  He  must  per- 


60  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

ceive  their  need  and  be  conscious  of  the  power  of  his 
message.  I  do  not  say  that  he  must  be  confident  of 
his  ability  to  deliver  the  message  with  effect.  Rather 
he  must  distrust  himself  and  lean  on  God.  Compas- 
sion and  Conviction  should  be  his  watchwords.  These 
are  characteristic  of  all  helpful  preaching.  "What 
you  ignorantly  worship,"  says  Saint  Paul,  "that  I 
am  now  proclaiming  to  you."  He  had  compassion  for 
their  ignorance.  He  had  the  conviction  that  he  could 
dispel  it. 

Compassion  is  not  condescension.  The  preacher's 
spirit  must  not  be  that  of  the  privileged  man  speaking 
to  the  unprivileged  or  of  the  learned  man  addressing 
the  unlearned.  I  am  so  fortunate  as  never  to  have 
known  seasickness;  but  often  in  rough  weather  I 
have  marked  the  distressing  effect  upon  others  pro- 
duced by  an  aggressively  well  man  who  walks  the 
deck  when  they  are  recumbent  and  pauses  here  and 
there  to  suggest  ways  in  which  sufferers  might  become 
even  as  he.  A  somewhat  similar  effect  has  been  at 
times  produced  upon  me  by  a  condescending  preacher 
whose  manner  suggests  that  after  the  sermon  a  vote  of 
thanks  would  be  to  him  an  acceptable  substitute  for 
the  doxology.  Our  Lord  was  never  condescending 
but  was  always  compassionate.  Condescension  repels 
while  compassion  knits  soul  to  soul.  It  is  recorded  of 
Our  Lord  that  when  He  saw  the  crowd,  His  heart 
was  moved  with  compassion  for  them,  because  they 
were  distressed  and  harassed,  like  sheep  without  a 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  61 

shepherd.10  I  suppose  that  one  of  the  most  pitiful 
sights  in  the  world  is  a  flock  of  sheep  lost  in  a  storm. 
You  may  recall  a  picture  of  such  a  scene  that  hangs  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum.11  Sheep  and  dogs  har- 
rassed  by  the  drifting  snow  and  hopelessly  lost  are  in 
the  extremity  of  distress.  That  picture  suggests  to 
me  the  world  as  Jesus  Christ  saw  it  with  the  eyes  of 
God.  What  did  He  do?  Well,  in  the  first  place,  His 
emotions  were  aroused.12  It  was  a  critical  moment  in 
His  ministry.  There  must  have  been  a  hush  in 
Heaven.  It  was  now  or  never.  So  He  did  not  luxu- 
riate in  emotion.  His  action  was  characteristic.  He 
was  there  to  lead  a  relief  expedition  and  so  He  called 
for  volunteers.  The  Twelve  responded  and  forth 
they  fared  to  the  rescue  of  "the  lost  sheep  of  Israel." 
If  a  man,  knowing  the  power  of  God,  can  but  realize 
the  predicament  of  the  sheeplike  crowd,  the  secret  of 
preaching  will  assuredly  be  revealed  to  him. 

If  a  man  has  compassion  for  the  crowd  he  will 
preach  for  their  sake  and  not  for  his  own.  I  have 
heard  many  sermons  which  were  obviously  delivered 
primarily  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  preacher.  He 
had  become  interested  in  a  certain  line  of  thought. 
He  had  happened  upon  what  seemed  to  him  a  bright 

10  St.  Matthew,  ix.,  36.    The  20th  Cent.  N.  T.  reads  "because 
they  were  distressed  and  harassed"  for  "because  they  fainted  and 
were  scattered  abroad."     The  former  seems  better  to  catch  the 
spirit  of  eo-KuX/xei/oi  and  e/ot/x/xcvot.      The  R.  V.  and  the  20th  Cent, 
are  in  agreement  in  the  rendering  of  the  former  word. 

11  Lost,  by  August  F.  Schenck. 


62  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

idea.  Or,  perhaps,  he  had  been  reading  a  book  which 
pleased  or  pained  him.  Forthwith  he  was  eager  to 
ease  his  mind.  Sunday  was  at  hand  and  the  pulpit 
was  his.  He  never  seriously  asked  himself  what  were 
the  needs  of  his  flock.  What  followed  I  can  best 
express  by  setting  over  against  that  tragic  picture  of 
the  sheep  in  the  snow  one  of  those  unreal  Arcadian 
scenes  in  which  the  shepherd,  playing  upon  his  pipe, 
holds  the  centre  of  the  picture  while  the  sheep,  more 
fortunate  than  the  congregation,  wander  listlessly 
away. 

But  compassion  is  impotent  without  conviction. 
The  preacher  must  be  convinced  that  he  has  somewhat 
to  offer  which,  if  received,  will  mean  light  and  leading 
to  his  hearers.  It  is  charged  sometimes  against  the 
physician  that  when  his  power  of  diagnosis  is  baffled 
he  prescribes  a  useless  but  harmless  concoction  in 
order  to  give  himself  time  for  a  further  consideration 
of  the  problem.  Whether  the  charge  is  true  in  the 
case  of  physicians  I  know  not.  It  might  be  made  with 
justice  in  the  case  of  some  preachers.  A  sham  sermon 
is,  I  am  sure,  an  offense  to  God  Almighty. 

The  sham  may  take  any  one  of  several  forms.  A 
detestable  species  is  that  in  which  the  preacher  gives 
glib  and  conventional  answers  to  questions  which  have 
never  troubled  him  and  offers  hearsay  solutions  of 
problems  with  which  he  himself  has  never  wrestled. 
Perhaps  the  most  common  sham  of  all  is  the  appeal 
to  experiences  to  which  the  preacher  is  a  stranger  or 
the  proclamation  of  beliefs  upon  which  he  has  a 
slender  hold.  It  is  extraordinary  how  quickly  the 


THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  63 

man  in  the  pew  can  distinguish  between  that  which 
has  its  source  in  the  recesses  of  the  preacher's  being 
and  that  which  comes  only  from  the  lips.  A  proposi- 
tion announced  by  a  man  convinced  of  its  truth  and 
power  may  carry  the  preacher's  conviction  to  many  a 
heart,  when  the  same  words  will  be  utterly  ineffectual 
if  spoken  by  one  to  whom  they  mean  little  or  nothing. 
It  is  just  because  the  man  counts  for  so  much  that  his 
elocution  and  fluency  count  for  so  little.  Cato  the 
Censor,  so  Cicero  tells  us,  used  to  wonder  why  one 
soothsayer  did  not  laugh  when  he  met  another.13 
There  are  cynics  in  our  own  day  who  are  ready  to 
impute  a  like  insincerity  to  the  clergy.  As  a  generali- 
zation this  is  utterly  unfair  and  unjustified.  But  in- 
sincere and  disingenuous  preachers  give  color  to  such 
a  charge.  Theirs  is  a  weighty  responsibility.  They 
counterfeit  and  debase  the  currency  of  the  King  of 
Kings. 

I  shall  do  well  to  end  this  lecture  by  a  reference  to 
the  thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  In  that 
great  discourse  upon  love  I  seem  to  find  testimony  to 
the  preacher's  need  of  both  conviction  and  compas- 
sion. I  suppose  that  the  manward  aspect  of  love  is 
the  thing  there  most  emphasized  by  Saint  Paul.  But 
the  Godward  aspect  is  surely  presupposed.  We  have 
Saint  John's  authority  for  the  proposition  that  he 
who  really  loves  God  must  love  his  brother  also.14  The 

13  De  Divinatione,  II.,  24,  "Fetus  autem  illud  Catonis  admo- 
dum  scitum  est,  qui  mirari  se  aiebat,  quod  non  rideret  Tiaruspex 
haruspicem  cum  vidisset" 

14  I.  Epistle  St.  John,  iv.,  21. 


64  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

presence  of  both  these  complementary  thoughts  in 
this  most  wonderful  chapter  will  become  clear  if  I  am 
permitted  to  paraphrase  it  thus : 

"Though  I  speak  in  the  tongues  of  men  or  even  of 
angels,  and  yet  have  not  experienced  that  love  of  God 
which  constrains  me  to  give  Him  my  love  in  return, 
I  have  become  mere  echoing  brass  or  a  clanging  cym- 
bal. And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  preaching  and 
fathom  all  the  depths  of  knowledge ;  and  even  though 
I  have  such  faith  as  might  move  mountains,  and  yet 
have  not  that  love  of  God  which  fills  me  with  com- 
passion for  the  man  in  the  crowd,  I  am  nothing — 
absolutely  nothing." 


Ill 

REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT 

Year  after  year,  generation  after  generation,  the 
preacher  enters  the  pulpit  at  sermon  time  and 
preaches  as  his  prophetic  ancestors  preached  before 
him.  We  are  right  in  still  attributing  great  power 
to  the  word  thus  spoken.1  Sometimes,  however,  I 
find  myself  wondering  whether  from  preaching  we 
are  inclined  to  expect  the  impossible. 

Significant  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  life  of 
the  crowd  during  the  time  that  methods  of  preaching 
have  remained  substantially  the  same.  There  has 
been  a  decline  in  church-going.  People  are  said  to 
be  more  religious  than  they  used  to  be,  but  the  beliefs 
of  many  good  persons  are  no  longer  fixed.  Rela- 
tively few  are  within  the  effective  range  of  the  pulpit. 
It  is  a  popular  assumption  with  magazine  writers 
that  this  is  because  the  Christian  message  has  lost  its 
power.  Before  this  explanation  is  accepted  as  final, 
it  will  be  well  to  consider  some  of  the  disadvantages 
which  to-day  attend  the  delivery  of  the  message. 

1  In  the  course  of  the  preparation  of  these  lectures  I  asked 
devout  laymen  of  many  communions  to  give  me  their  estimates  of 
the  value  of  preaching.  In  every  instance  they  bore  witness  to 
the  influence  of  preaching  in  their  own  lives.  In  almost  every 
instance  they  testified  that  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  had  grown 
stronger  and  more  compelling  as  the  years  passed  by. 


66  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

In  the  first  place,  this  is  an  era  of  excessive  utter- 
ance. The  man  in  the  crowd,  at  least  in  the  larger 
cities,  is  in  serious  danger  of  being  talked  to  death. 
The  number  of  opportunities  afforded  him  to  hear 
other  people  speak  is  very  great.  Accounts  of  travel, 
of  adventure  and  discovery,  the  presentation  of  new 
causes  and  the  making  of  pleas  for  needed  reforms 
are  matters  of  nightly  occurrence.  The  after-dinner 
speech  is  more  of  a  nuisance  than  ever.  University 
extension  lectures,  missionary  addresses,  board  and 
committee  meetings,  conferences  of  various  sorts, 
fairly  throng  the  calendar  of  the  man  in  the  crowd. 
Here  am  I,  a  voice  from  the  midst  of  that  crowd, 
delivering  one  of  the  many  hundred  courses  of  lec- 
tures annually  announced  by  educational  institu- 
tions. Nor  is  there  any  season  of  immunity. 
Commencement  addresses,  harangues  to  students  in 
summer  conferences,  vacation  lectures  and  mid- 
summer meetings  of  bar  associations  and  of  various 
learned  bodies  enable  one  to  make  the  entire  year  a 
long,  glad  round  of  talk.  And  it  is  usually  not 
optional  with  the  man  whether  he  will  attend  these 
orgies  of  utterance.  Personal  and  official  pressure 
of  all  sorts  is  brought  to  bear  upon  him.  It  is  sub- 
stantially true  that  he  is  gagged,  bound  and  carried 
to  the  scene  of  his  martyrdom.  When  he  is  not 
actually  present  the  excellence  of  modern  reporting 
insures  his  constructive  attendance.  Congress  and 
the  state  legislatures  are  now  in  practically  continu- 
ous session,  and  our  senators  and  representatives  are 
in  a  state  of  perpetual  vocal  eruption.  Whatever  of 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  67 

speech-making  a  man's  ear  escapes  is  sure  to  meet 
his  eye  not  merely  in  the  newspapers  but  through 
the  medium  of  the  attractive  reprints  which  make 
the  daily  mail  a  thing  of  terror. 

It  is,  I  submit,  utterly  impossible  to  maintain  the 
value  of  the  spoken  word  under  such  conditions  of 
over-production.  It  is  not  merely  the  Christian 
message  that  suffers  a  consequent  loss  of  effective- 
ness. The  man  in  the  crowd  is  distracted  by  the 
number  of  messages  of  all  sorts  directed  at  him  and 
no  one  of  them  can  make  its  legitimate  impression. 
He  is  naturally  prone  to  think  of  the  sermon  as 
merely  one  more  in  an  unending  succession  of 
haranguer. 

In  the  second  place,  the  man  in  the  pew  is  aware 
that  the  value  of  the  message  from  the  pulpit  is 
being  continually  challenged  on  every  side.  The 
youngest  instructor  in  the  university  faculty  is  ready 
not  merely  to  question  but  to  destroy.  It  may  well 
be  that  it  is  wholesome  for  the  message  thus  to 
struggle  for  its  very  existence.  I  have  no  doubt  of 
its  ultimate  triumph.  But  the  preacher  of  to-day 
must  always  remember  that  he  is  not  speaking  in  an 
era  of  unquestioning  acceptance,  and  that  many  a 
man  in  the  pew  has  an  uncomfortable  anxiety  lest 
the  bottom  may  drop  out  of  the  pulpit  before  the 
discourse  is  over. 

More  important  than  either  of  these  considerations 
is  the  fact  that  the  process  of  dividing  and  subdivid- 
ing Christendom  into  a  variety  of  religious  groups 
has  for  the  time  being  made  authoritative  utterance 


68  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

an  impossibility.  No  one  speaks  to-day  for  the  whole 
Christian  community.  Christianity  just  now  has  no 
voice.  The  Pope  speaks  with  more  authority  than 
anyone  else  in  Christendom.2  Various  explanations 
may  be  hazarded  why,  for  example,  the  recent  papal 
utterance  respecting  the  European  War  was  not 
more  effective  than  it  proved  to  be.3  I  suspect  that 
one  reason  is  that  the  Pope  in  making  it  did  not  have 
a  united  Church  behind  him.  The  decline  of  author- 
ity and  the  decay  of  respect  for  authority  are  facts 
which  must  be  taken  into  account  in  estimating  the 
power  of  preaching.4 

Not  only  does  no  presumption  arise  to-day  in 
favor  of  the  acceptance  of  an  utterance  merely 
because  it  is  official,  but  it  is  even  true  that  the  pre- 
sumption is  the  other  way.  One  reason  often  given 
to  a  layman  for  accepting  an  invitation  to  speak  to 
men  on  a  religious  subject  is  that  his  utterance  will 
be  recognized  as  spontaneous  and  genuine.  He  is 
not  "paid  to  talk"  and  his  hearers,  it  is  said,  will  value 
his  testimony  for  that  reason.  It  will  be  understood 
that  I  am  not  expressing  agreement  with  this  attitude 
of  mind.  I  am  merely  recording  what  I  believe  the 
facts  to  be. 

Under  conditions  such  as  I  have  described,  it 
seems  clear  that  the  Christian  communions  are  bind- 

2  An   interesting   paper   on    "The    Catholic   Church   and   the 
War"  is  to  be  found  in  The  Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  III., 
p.  194. 

3  The  Encyclical  Letter  of  Benedict  XV.  of  November  1,  1914. 

4  See  Lecture  V. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  69 

ing  upon  their  preachers  burdens  that  are  too  heavy 
and  too  grievous  to  be  borne  and  that  we  laymen  are 
doing  little  or  nothing  to  lift  them.  Indifference  to 
religious  education  in  the  home  and  its  absence  from 
multitudes  of  schools  usually  result  in  furnishing  to 
the  preacher  a  congregation  uninstructed  in  the 
fundamentals  of  religion.  We  expect  him,  almost 
unaided,  to  gather  his  congregation  together,  to  open 
their  minds  to  the  acceptance  of  religious  truth,  to 
educate  them,  to  counsel  them,  to  exhort  them  and 
to  keep  them  in  the  way  of  righteousness.  Even  in 
a  communion  like  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  where 
the  work  of  the  laity  is  of  minor  importance  and  the 
teaching  is  done  normally  either  by  the  clergy  or  the 
sisters,  the  struggle  to  impart  religious  education  to 
the  young  is  maintained  against  fearful  odds.  The 
burden  of  the  parochial  schools  has  been  carried  by 
our  Roman  brethren  at  an  heroic  sacrifice.  One 
wonders  how  much  longer  the  economic  strain  can 
be  supported.  Hereafter  during  these  lectures  I 
hope  to  speak  of  needed  reforms  in  the  domain  of 
religious  education.5  At  present  I  must  content 
myself  with  a  few  suggestions  respecting  the  way 
in  which  the  preacher  may  make  the  best  of  a  bad 
situation. 

If  his  constant  aim  is  the  revelation  of  God  to  his 
people,  the  preacher  will  not  neglect  agencies  other 
than  preaching  if  at  any  moment  the  power  of 
preaching  seems  to  have  waned.  In  particular  he 

5  See  Lecture  IV.,  infra,  p.  98. 


70  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

will  strive  to  make  his  contact  with  the  daily  life  of 
his  people  a  means  of  imparting  to  them  the  secret 
that  has  transformed  his  own. 

Revelation  through  contact  is  the  process  by  which, 
through  companionship,  one  friend  makes  another 
friend  a  partaker  with  him  of  the  joy  of  doing  God's 
will. 

If  the  preacher  can  first  become  the  friend  of  his 
people  his  sermon  will  be  preached  to  receptive 
minds.  We  are  told  that  parental  authority  has 
waned  and  that  filial  reverence  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 
If  so,  it  has  been  succeeded  by  another  thing  no  less 
admirable.  I  refer  to  the  sympathetic  companion- 
ship between  parents  and  children  which  seems  to 
have  been  made  possible  by  the  changed  conditions 
of  American  life.  The  command  is  not  often  heard 
nowadays  and  the  consequent  decline  of  obedience  is 
a  serious  matter.  But  friendly  counsel  never  had 
a  greater  power  and  this  power  may  well  be  exercised 
from  the  pulpit. 

I  am  not  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  now  and  then 
preachers  who  flash  cometlike  upon  our  vision  do  a 
wonderful  work  for  God  in  ways  inaccessible  to 
others.  Some  men  of  exceptional  gifts  seem  able  to 
emerge  from  the  loneliness  of  a  cloistered  life  and 
to  speak  words  of  power  to  crowds  of  strangers.  The 
very  fact  that  the  word  so  spoken  is  impersonal 
seems  to  invest  it  with  unusual  authority.  There  are 
some  men  who  have  passed  through  the  fires  of  fierce 
experience  and  have  been  thereby  purged  of  dross  in 
such  measure  that  the  hidden  gift  within  shines  out 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  71 

with  dazzling  brilliancy.  Such  men  are  in  themselves 
a  revelation  of  God.  Instead  of  the  more  subdued 
light  that  is  made  visible  only  through  friendly  con- 
tact, their  light  shines  before  men  from  afar.  It  is 
as  if  a  beacon  had  been  kindled  in  the  pulpit. 

But  cases  like  these  are  exceptional.  Such 
preachers  defy  imitation.  While  thankfully  recog- 
nizing their  power  we  must  concede  the  futility  of 
commending  them  as  examples.  If  any  young  man 
has  extraordinary  gifts  as  a  preacher  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  be  the  last  of  all  to  discover  the  fact.  It 
is  far  better  that  every  man  should  assume  himself 
of  mediocre  ability  and  should  seek  by  personal  con- 
tact with  his  people  both  to  prepare  the  way  for  his 
sermon  and  also  to  reinforce  it  after  it  is  preached. 

There  is  an  undoubted  tendency  to  exalt  pulpit 
preaching  unduly.  Let  me  quote  some  observations 
which  Bishop  Brent  has  made  upon  this  subject: 

Professionalism  is  a  form  of  mechanical  life.  Slavish 
adherence  to  it  has  injured  the  righteous  cause  for  which 
it  stands.  Of  no  occupation  or  vocation  is  this  more  true 
than  of  the  Ministry.  We  think  of  preaching  as  being  a 
set  utterance  from  the  pulpit.  That  is  certainly  not  the 
meaning  given  to  it  by  Christ  or  by  his  immediate  followers. 
Pulpitism,  to  coin  a  word,  is  a  menace  to  pastor  and  to 
people.  The  man  who  talks  of  religious  truths  only  from 
the  vantage  ground  of  the  pulpit  is  pretty  sure  to  become 
an  intolerable  dogmatist  or  a  dry-as-dust  philosopher. 
What  we  need  is  a  revival  of  wayside  preaching.  I  do 
not  mean  by  that  of  necessity  a  strolling  through  the  coun- 
try and  gathering  groups  here  and  there.  The  wayside 


72  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

of  many  years  ago  is  not  the  wayside  of  to-day.  The  way- 
side of  to-day  for  the  average  pastor  is  the  opportunities 
afforded  by  social  life.  Christ's  preaching  and,  to  a  large 
degree,  Saint  Paul's  preaching,  was  a  phase  of  ordinary, 
everyday  fellowship.  It  was  seasoned  conversation  and  it 
was  seized  conversation.  It  is  one  of  the  prerogatives  and 
privileges  of  the  pastor  to  guide  the  conversational  life  of 
the  flock.  This  needs  skill,  devotion,  tact  and  every  other 
high  Christian  quality.  A  man  does  not  want  to  be  a  prude 
or  to  drag  in  the  spiritual  aspect  of  affairs  in  an  inoppor- 
tune way,  which  is  worse  than  not  doing  it  at  all ;  but  he 
must  always  be  standing  by  to  make  his  contribution  of 
God's  truth  where  opportunity  opens  up  naturally  or  may 
be  seized  by  violence.  Our  day  needs  the  spiritualizing 
of  ordinary  topics.  No  man  can  undertake  to  speak  of  this 
duty  without  blushing  with  shame  for  his  own  failure  in 
the  past.  But  it  comes  before  me  as  a  great  and  inspiring 
opportunity  to  which  we  must  lend  our  energy.6 

We  shall  do  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  the 
recorded  utterances  of  Our  Lord  were  seldom  formal. 
Indeed,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  almost  the  only 
one  which  could  aptly  be  described  as  a  sermon. 
Most  of  His  teachings  were  wholly  informal.  His 
illustrations  and  parables  seem  to  have  occurred  to 
Him  in  the  course  of  conversation.  They  grew  out 
of  the  situation  in  which  He  and  His  hearers  hap- 
pened to  find  themselves.  It  was  the  companion- 
ship that  counted  most.  We  are  apt  to  overlook  the 
effective  way  in  which  the  Evangelists  surround 
each  discourse  with  the  atmosphere  which  generated 

6  MS.  letter. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  73 

it.  If  one  were  to  cull  from  the  Gospels  the  sayings 
of  Our  Lord  and  print  them  merely  as  a  series  of 
utterances,  they  would  indeed  be  found  to  be  dis- 
courses of  amazing  power  but  far  less  convincing 
than  in  their  proper  setting.  They  were  the  products 
of  contact  and  they  should  never  be  deprived  of  this 
distinctive  quality.  Perhaps  there  was  no  more  fruit- 
ful day  in  Our  Lord's  ministry  than  the  day  which 
Saint  John  and  Saint  Andrew  spent  with  Him.7 
Yet  their  lives  and  the  echoes  of  their  souls  are  the 
only  record  of  what  Our  Lord  may  have  said  to  them. 
It  has  always  been  so  with  the  greatest  teachers. 
There  has  been  no  conscious  setting  of  the  stage  and 
yet  the  dramatic  element  has  been  by  no  means  lack- 
ing. The  teaching  has  always  seemed  to  have  an 
almost  accidental  quality  and  has  related  itself 
clearly  to  daily  life.  No  one  who  reads  the  Sym- 
posium or  the  Dialogues  can  fail  to  be  impressed  by 
this  aspect  of  Socratic  teaching.  One  notes  with 
something  like  dismay  the  general  neglect  of  this 
principle  in  American  institutions  of  higher  educa- 
tion. A  great  gulf  is  usually  fixed  between  teacher 
and  student.  The  instruction  given  often  takes  the 
form  of  a  lecture,  which,  after  all,  is  little  better  than 
shouting  across  the  gulf.  Where  the  deficiency  of 

T  St.  John,  1.,  39.  "They  came  and  saw  where  He  dwelt,  and 
abode  with  Him  that  day."  I  have  wondered  sometimes  whether 
there  were  not  episodes  in  his  communion  with  the  Master  that 
Saint  John  could  not  bring  himself  to  write  about.  They  were 
too  sacred  to  be  recorded.  If  so,  this  was  one  of  them  and  the 
Last  Supper  was  another. 


74  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

such  a  method  is  recognized  the  effort  at  remedy 
often  takes  the  form  of  a  tutorial  system  in  which 
the  professor  of  distinction  remains  in  isolation  while 
the  student  is  brought  into  personal  contact  with 
younger  and  less  distinguished  men.  I  find  myself 
wishing  that  the  tutors  were  entrusted  with  the  class- 
room instruction  and  that  the  students  in  small  infor- 
mal groups  were  given  frequent  access  to  the  head 
of  the  department.  A  day  with  a  real  man,  without 
any  tasks  previously  assigned,  and  spent  in  watching 
a  series  of  experiments  or  in  the  discussion  of  a  point 
under  investigation  or  in  exploring  some  corner  of 
the  field  of  research,  would  be  certain  to  give  a  new 
viewpoint  to  many  a  listless  college  lad.  Revelation 
through  contact  is  a  process  by  no  means  confined  to 
the  sphere  of  religion.  It  is  true,  however,  that  all 
revelation  is  an  educational  process.  On  the  highest 
level  of  all  is  the  revelation  of  God. 

In  commending  to  the  preacher  some  experiments 
in  the  value  of  contact  I  am  merely  speaking  out 
of  the  everyday  experience  of  the  lawyer.  Estrange- 
ment through  correspondence  or  through  formal 
argument  are  the  commonplaces  of  his  work.  Suc- 
cessful approach  through  personal  contact  often 
averts  final  breach  and  keeps  the  parties  out  of  court. 
If  it  were  not  for  such  contact  and  the  resulting 
adjustment  of  differences,  the  courts  would  long  ago 
have  been  submerged  by  the  floods  of  litigation. 

The  young  lawyer  is  apt  to  be  the  preacher  of  his 
profession.  He  has  ascertained  the  law  of  his  case 
and  he  undertakes  to  lay  it  down  dogmatically  to  his 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  75 

adversary  or  to  the  court.  His  cocksureness  makes 
him  defiant.  He  forgets  that  the  very  existence  of 
a  plaintiff  and  a  defendant  is  strong  evidence  that 
the  question  under  consideration  has  at  least  two 
sides.  He  has  yet  to  learn  that  to  make  the  other 
man  want  to  accept  your  view  is  an  important  part 
of  the  advocate's  function.  He  is  rather  inclined  to 
challenge  the  court  to  differ  from  him.  He  believes 
that  he  has  in  his  possession  an  authority  which  will 
carry  all  before  it  as  soon  as  it  is  cited.  At  last  he 
produces  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  and  brandishes  it  with  all  the  assur- 
ance that  sometimes  characterizes  an  appeal  to  the 
decree  of  an  Ecumenical  Council  or  to  the  rule  of 
Saint  Vincent  of  Lerins.8  Much  to  his  chagrin  he 
finds  that  the  court  is  already  familiar  with  his 
authority  but  perversely  insists  upon  interpreting  it 
as  making  not  for  his  contention  but  against  it.  The 
young  lawyer  is,  however,  more  fortunate  than  the 
young  preacher  in  this  respect — that  when  he  fails 
to  carry  conviction  he  cannot  forever  successfully 
contend  that  it  is  the  court  that  is  at  fault.  Sooner 
or  later  he  must  get  results  or  drift  out  of  the  pro- 
fession. I  know  many  a  devoted  preacher  who  in 
middle  life  still  cherishes  the  conviction  that  his  for- 
midable utterance  will  win  for  him  a  crown  in  the 
next  world  to  compensate  him,  as  it  were,  for  the 
pews  he  has  emptied  in  this  one. 

Another  form  of  futile  utterance  familiar  to  the 

1  "Quod  ubique,  quod  semper,  quod  ab  omnibus." 


76  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

lawyer  is  the  legislative  enactment  that  presup- 
poses a  community  different  in  temper  and  life  from 
that  at  which  it  is  aimed.  There  are  laws  on  every 
statute  book  which  have  ceased  to  be  operative  though 
never  formally  repealed.  At  every  session  of  the 
legislature  of  state  and  nation  measures  are  prepared 
which  are  explicable  only  on  the  theory  that  the 
draftsmen  are  not  in  touch  with  the  life  of  the  people. 
It  is  even  easier  to  exaggerate  the  effect  of  legisla- 
tion than  to  overestimate  the  power  of  preaching.  In 
the  case  of  a  statute  a  sanction  exists  and  an  attempt 
may  be  made  to  enforce  it.  The  preacher  who  does 
not  know  his  people  might  as  well  be  haranguing  a 
deaf  and  dumb  asylum. 

I  am  not  to  be  understood  as  advocating  coward- 
ice in  preaching.  The  purpose  of  contact  is  not  to 
teach  the  preacher  what  he  may  say  with  safety  but 
what  it  is  that  needs  to  be  said  and  how  it  may  be 
said  effectually.  Take,  for  example,  the  attitude  of 
the  preacher  toward  the  pleasures  of  the  community. 
This  much  is  certain:  that  it  is  only  by  ministering 
to  people  in  pain  and  by  comforting  them  in  adver- 
sity that  a  man  can  earn  the  right  to  counsel  or  to 
rebuke  them  when  he  disapproves  of  their  way  of 
having  a  good  time.  It  is  almost  always  a  futile 
thing  for  one  who  holds  himself  aloof  from  the  life 
of  his  community  to  thunder  denunciations  against 
that  which  his  people  rightly  or  wrongly  believe  to 
be  innocent  fun.  If  a  preacher  conceives  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  speak  on  such  matters  (and  I  for  one  feel 
certain  that  it  is)  he  must  realize  that  his  authority 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  77 

so  to  do  is  derived  not  from  ordination  but  from 
service. 

I  have  mentioned  rebuke  and  denunciation.  These 
agencies  should  be  indulged  in  most  sparingly  and 
only  with  respect  to  that  which  is  recognized  by  the 
people  as  being  sinful.  The  mere  fact  that  the 
preacher  perceives  a  moral  principle  to  be  at  stake 
is  not  conclusive.  In  the  first  place,  he  may  be  mis- 
taken. If  he  had  mixed  more  with  his  people  he 
might  better  have  understood  their  point  of  view. 
But  even  if  he  is  right,  he  must  first  do  what  he  can 
to  make  them  see  that  he  is  right  before  he  under- 
takes to  chastise  them.  If  a  boy  is  flogged  for  doing 
something  which  he  honestly  believes  was  right,  his 
respect  for  the  teacher  is  not  likely  to  be  enhanced. 
Fearlessness  in  rebuking  conceded  evil  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  frothing  at  the  mouth  over 
something  which  people  still  believe  to  be  harmless. 

Even  if  the  preacher  is  counseling  or  exhorting, 
and  is  not  rebuking  at  all,  it  will  be  a  great  help  to 
him  to  have  been  at  pains  to  learn  what  can  be  said 
on  the  other  side.  It  is  very  difficult  for  a  man  who 
does  not  play  golf  or  tennis  to  see  the  problem  of 
Sunday  observance  precisely  as  it  presents  itself  to 
the  young.  I  have  heard  admonitions  on  the  subject 
of  women's  dress  uttered  by  preachers  whose  author- 
ity in  such  matters  was  not  generally  recognized  by 
the  young  ladies  of  the  congregation.  Plays  and 
dances  sometimes  seem  worse  to  those  who  have  not 
seen  them  than  to  those  who  have. 

Somebody  will  probably  accuse  me  of  advising  the 


78  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

clergy  to  play  golf  on  Sunday,  to  study  the  subject 
of  female  adornment  and  to  dance  and  go  to  the 
play.  I  am  giving  no  such  advice.  I  do  not  regard 
it  as  part  of  my  function;  although  I  confess  that  I 
have  occasionally  seen  gentlemen  of  the  cloth  who, 
I  am  sure,  would  have  been  humanized  by  such 
experiences.  I  am  merely  suggesting  that  it  is  well 
to  make  the  people  feel  that  the  preacher,  by  contact 
with  their  daily  life,  has  qualified  himself  to  speak  of 
it  with  intelligence. 

Perhaps  at  this  point  it  may  not  be  out  of  place 
for  a  lawyer  from  the  crowd  to  refer  to  the  handling 
of  facts  in  the  pulpit. 

It  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the  difficulty  of  ascer- 
taining the  facts  of  even  a  simple  case.  A  young 
lawyer  is  apt  to  begin  by  assuming  the  facts  to  be 
as  his  client  states  them.  He  soon  learns  by  sad 
experience  that  this  is  usually  an  unsafe  assumption. 
If  the  client  really  knew  the  facts  and  appreciated 
his  adversary's  apprehension  of  them  he  would  sel- 
dom need  to  consult  a  lawyer.  There  are,  moreover, 
few  clients  who  will  voluntarily  and  with  frankness 
disclose  even  to  their  own  adviser  such  known  facts 
as  are  unfavorable  to  their  contention.  One  occa- 
sionally wonders  how  often  a  man  is  really  frank 
in  acknowledging  his  sins,  whether  he  is  confessing 
them  alone  or  in  the  presence  of  a  priest.  Not  the 
least  important  of  the  lawyer's  duties  is  privately 
to  cross-examine  his  own  client  in  order  to  extort 
from  him  the  modifying  fact  or  the  qualifying  letter. 

In  addition  to  these  factors  of  difficulty  is  the  lack 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  79 

of  accuracy  in  observation  and  report  on  the  part  of 
even  the  most  honest  witness.  It  is  probably  not 
often  that  the  facts  of  a  case  are  reproduced  before 
the  court  and  jury  exactly  as  they  occurred;  and 
this  even  in  cases  when  all  concerned  are  really  trying 
to  ascertain  the  truth.  The  nearer  approach  to 
apparent  mathematical  certainty  the  greater  the 
damage  done  by  the  omission  of  a  single  factor.  We 
all  know  how  easy  it  is  to  obscure  truth  by  the  igno- 
rant or  dishonest  use  of  statistics.  It  is  a  familiar 
saying  about  the  courthouse  that  while  figures  can't 
lie,  liars  can  figure. 

It  is  natural  enough  that  the  man  in  the  pulpit 
should  underestimate  the  difficulties  of  proof.  His 
sympathies  have,  perhaps,  become  enlisted  in  a  par- 
ticular cause.  He  has  been  told  that  such-and-such 
facts  can  readily  be  established.  He  proceeds  in 
good  faith  to  make  them  the  basis  of  a  public  state- 
ment. It  may  turn  out  that  the  case  is  by  no  means 
as  clear  as  he  thought.  If  his  proofs  are  demanded 
and  he  is  not  able  to  produce  them  it  is  at  least 
embarrassing.  Occasionally  in  such  a  predicament 
a  minister  is  tempted  to  complain  bitterly  of  the 
technicalities  of  evidence  and  to  take  refuge  in  talk 
about  "moral  certainty."  The  fact  is  that  the  diffi- 
culties of  proof  are  inherent  in  human  nature.  They 
are  not  the  result  but  the  cause  of  the  rules  of  evi- 
dence. A  certainty  as  to  matter  of  fact  which  has 
not  a  provable  basis  is  more  likely  to  be  an  immoral 
than  a  moral  certainty. 

This  is  particularly  true  when  an  attempt  is  made 


80  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

to  pass  judgment  on  the  conduct  of  individuals. 
Hasty  generalizations  about  whole  classes  of  men 
sometimes  have  no  surer  foundation  than  an  unjust 
moral  estimate  of  the  conduct  of  a  single  person. 

When  it  comes  to  determining  the  motives  with 
which  our  brethren  act  all  the  difficulties  of  proof 
are  greatly  increased.  I  suppose  I  know  myself 
better  than  anybody  else  knows  me.  And  yet  I  am 
not  at  all  sure  that  I  can  pass  a  just  moral  judgment 
upon  any  act  of  mine.  Motives  are  mixed.9  They 
range  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  Inability  to 
judge  justly  is  a  good  reason  for  not  judging  at  all. 
If  this  is  true  respecting  judgments  of  myself  it  is 
not  less  true  respecting  judgments  of  others.  The 
older  I  grow  the  greater  the  practical  wisdom  I  per- 
ceive in  Our  Lord's  injunction  "Judge  not."1 
Saint  Paul  summed  up  the  whole  matter  when  he 
said:  "It  weighs  very  little  with  me  that  I  am  judged 
by  you  or  by  any  human  tribunal.  No,  I  do  not 
even  judge  myself;  for,  though  I  am  conscious  of 
nothing  against  myself,  that  does  not  prove  me  inno- 
cent. It  is  the  Lord  who  is  my  judge.  Therefore 
do  not  pass  judgment  before  the  time  but  wait  till 

9  A  favorite  topic  of  discussion  with  young  people  is  the  ques- 
tion whether  people  ever  act  from  disinterested  motives.     The 
debate  is  usually  obscured  by  a  failure  to  distinguish  between 
what  is  conceivable  and  what  actually  happens.     It  is  at  least 
conceivable  that  a  man  should  take  really  disinterested  action. 
Whether  in  any  particular  case  he  has  done  so  is  purely  a  question 
of  fact. 

10  St.  Matthew,  vii.,  1. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  81 

the  Lord  comes.  He  will  throw  light  upon  what  is 
now  dark  and  obscure,  and  will  reveal  the  motives  in 
men's  minds;  and  then  every  one  will  receive  due 
praise  from  God."1 

Personal  contact  is  a  wholesome  check  upon  the 
tendency  to  judge.  If  I  meet  a  man  and  get  to 
know  him  even  slightly  the  chances  are  that  my  pub- 
lic, comment  upon  him  will  be  temperate.  If  we 
know  a  man  only  as  the  advocate  of  a  cause  we  con- 
demn, we  are  apt  to  picture  him  as  a  monstrous 
embodiment  of  its  evils.  Contact  with  him  may  not 
change  our  estimate  of  his  cause  but  it  may  help  us 
to  realize  that  the  cause  is  not  his  only  interest  in 
life  and  that  he,  as  a  man,  is  like  the  rest  of  us — a 
combination  of  qualities  good  and  bad.  In  the  end 
we  may  even  be  led  to  abandon  our  personal  attack 
upon  him  and  to  confine  our  criticism  to  the  imper- 
sonal thing  which  we  feel  called  upon  to  condemn. 

I  wish  that  conference  could  be  made  a  substitute 
for  long-range  controversy  through  pamphlets  and 
the  correspondence  columns  of  the  religious  press. 
There  probably  would  have  been  fewer  martyrdoms 
in  history  if  inquisitor  and  victim  had  first  camped 
and  tramped  together  and  had  had  a  chance  to  talk 
it  all  out. 

The  preacher  should  seek  contact  with  his  people 
not  more  for  their  sake  than  for  his  own.  It 
is  a  truth  in  paradox  that  he  will  do  most  for  them 
when  he  is  honestly  aiming  to  get  their  help  for  him- 

11 1.  Corinthians,  iv.,  3  et  seq.     (20th  Cent.  N.  T.) 


82  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

self.  Indeed,  pulpit  preaching  is  only  the  climax  of 
the  pastoral  relation.  In  that  relation  is  to  be  found 
the  field  of  preparation.  The  sermon  is  the 
preacher's  self-expression;  and  the  preacher's  self 
is  that  which  his  contact  with  God  and  man  have 
made  him.  If  he  is  to  reveal  God  to  his  people,  his 
own  apprehension  of  God  must  be  continually 
strengthened.  This  can  come  about  not  merely 
through  pondering  in  solitude  but  through  such  pas- 
toral service  as  will  make  the  preacher's  life  a  tran- 
script of  the  Incarnation.  Our  Lord  first  emptied 
Himself  of  His  privilege  in  order  to  share  our  life. 
It  was  only  thus  that  His  call  to  discipleship  became 
a  command.  To  the  end  that  the  preacher's  call  may 
be  compelling  he  must  lose  himself  in  the  life  of  his 
people.  No  formal  contact  will  suffice.  He  must 
seek  to  become  to  each  of  them  an  acceptable  friend. 
I  do  not  overlook  the  practical  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  the  course  which  I  advise.  It  is  one  thing  to 
desire  friends^  \>  with  people.  It  is  another  to 
achieve  it.  If  I  adopt  an  air  of  self-confident  famil- 
iarity, I  naturally  give  offense.  My  effort  at  con- 
tact becomes  intrusion.  If  I  allow  myself  to  be  dis- 
couraged by  frigidity  or  to  be  repelled  by  shyness  I 
defeat  my  object  in  another  way.  It  is  just  because 
contact  is  so  important  and  makes  such  large  drafts 
upon  the  characteristics  of  the  true  gentleman  that 
much  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  subject  in  the 
seminary.  I  can  speak  all  the  more  freely  in  this 
presence  because  I  do  not  know  the  individual  stu- 
dents. What  I  say,  therefore,  is  wholly  impersonal. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  83 

How  the  subject  can  best  be  dealt  with  in  any  given 
seminary  is  a  matter  for  careful  study.  Somehow 
or  other  each  student  must  receive  a  training  in 
social  relations.  No  mistaken  regard  for  a  man's 
feelings  should  lead  a  discriminating  faculty  to  over- 
look his  unfitness  to  meet  people  in  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion. There  are  situations  in  which  it  is  cruelty  not 
to  seem  harsh.  The  seminary  must  provide  social 
opportunities  and  there  should  be  frank  constructive 
criticism  of  the  use  that  the  student  makes  of  them. 
I  am  not  speaking  of  preparation  for  pastoral  inter- 
course merely  with  people  of  social  privilege.  Those 
in  the  humbler  walks  of  life  are  often  quite  as  inac- 
cessible and  make  at  least  as  great  a  demand  upon 
tact.  The  American  workingman  is  a  problem  in 
himself.  If  in  talking  with  him  you  emphasize  your- 
self and  your  achievements  his  mind  will  be  closed 
against  your  message.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you 
assume  an  unreal  humility,  he  will  turn  from  you  in 
disgust.  He  does  not  require  of  you  anything  except 
that  you  shall  be  yourself ;  but  to  be  yourself  demands 
both  religious  and  social  experience. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  aspects  of  the  matter  is 
successful  approach  to  the  young.  The  minister 
should  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  they  are  stern  crit- 
ics ;  but  he  must  not  allow  this  fact  to  make  him  self- 
conscious.  Their  many  lovable  qualities  are  an  equi- 
poise to  criticism.  The  adult  critic  is  usually  only  a 
grown-up  child  who  has  retained  nothing  of  child- 
hood except  its  unlovely  characteristics.  It  is  a  good 
general  rule  not  to  force  your  society  upon  the  young 


84  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

but  to  let  them  know  that  you  are  sincerely  sympa- 
thetic with  their  interests.  Take  time  to  go  to  see 
the  boy's  football  team  in  action.  Go  to  the  girl's 
commencement  exercises  or  to  the  school  play;  and 
do  not  allude  to  the  fact  afterwards  except  to  offer 
congratulations.  Be  ready  to  do  with  young  people 
anything  that  you  can  do  as  well  as  they;  but  do 
not  offer  to  play  tennis  or  golf  if  you  cannot  hit  the 
ball.  The  young  minister,  however,  should  be  able 
to  do  many  things  well.  The  theological  student  who 
neglects  exercise  and  athletics  is  making  a  woeful 
mistake.  If  the  young  minister  has  learned  to  handle 
a  canoe  and  to  take  care  of  himself  in  the  woods,  the 
experience  may  stand  him  in  good  stead.  There  is 
no  better  way  to  make  friends  with  boys  than  to  be 
their  companion  on  a  vacation  camping  trip,  whether 
in  the  wilderness  or  in  nearby  woods.  Boys  are 
peculiarly  responsive  to  the  influences  of  forest  and 
stream.  Woodcraft  has  potent  charms  for  them.  It 
requires  scarcely  more  than  suggestion  to  make  them 
exchange  noise  for  stillness  and  carelessness  for 
attention.  All  the  conditions  are  favorable  for 
revelation  through  contact. 

While  the  minister  should  strive  in  every  proper 
way  to  be  a  sharer  of  his  people's  life,  in  so  doing 
he  must  no  more  lose  sight  of  his  ministry  than  Our 
Lord  did  in  the  course  of  His  social  contacts.  The 
minister  without  a  sense  of  mission  degrades  his 
sacred  calling  and  brings  the  church  into  contempt. 
It  is  really  not  hard  to  make  people  understand  that 
your  aim  in  life  is  to  serve  others.  I  have  yet  to 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  85 

learn  of  a  single  case  in  which  the  genuine  spirit  of 
service  in  a  man's  heart  has  failed  to  find  the  outlet 
of  opportunity.  If  a  man  esteems  nothing  to  be  too 
much  trouble  it  is  wonderful  how  quickly  he  becomes 
indispensable  to  others.  If  other  people's  interests 
are  to  him  the  chief est  interests  in  life,  he  is  the  man 
to  whom  everybody  turns  at  moments  of  crisis  and 
decision.  To  pry  into  the  affairs  of  others  for  one's 
own  satisfaction  is  the  characteristic  of  the  busybody. 
To  feign  a  concern  for  the  welfare  of  those  who  can 
be  of  service  to  you  is  to  be  a  sycophant.  To  be 
capable  of  rejoicing  with  them  that  rejoice  and  of 
weeping  with  them  that  weep  is  to  have  in  you  the 
mind  of  the  Master. 

While  occasions  of  contact  with  his  people  are  the 
preacher's  great  opportunity  he  will  do  well  to 
reserve  his  preaching  for  the  pulpit.  He  can  make 
men  aware  that  he  is  ready  to  talk  about  their  prob- 
lems without  asking  in  so  many  words  for  the  story 
of  their  lives.  It  is  important  that  people  should 
realize  that  the  preacher's  interests  are  at  least  as 
wide  as  theirs,  although  few  things  are  more  unlovely 
than  the  minister  who  makes  a  show  of  versatility. 
Let  him  actually  be  in  touch  with  the  life  of  the 
whole  community.  If  his  lot  is  cast  among  the  wage- 
earners,  he  should  be  at  pains  to  comprehend  the 
point  of  view  of  the  employer.  Revelation  includes 
the  interpretation  to  his  people  of  that  which  they 
do  not  understand.  Any  demagogue  can  attain 
transient  popularity  by  encouraging  people  to  see 
only  their  own  side  of  a  question.  If  the  preacher's 


86  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

work  is  among  people  of  cultivation  he  must  have 
the  spirit  of  him  who  can  "walk  with  kings  nor 
lose  the  common  touch."  The  time  spent  on  books, 
the  drama,  music,  contemporary  history  at  home  and 
abroad,  is  not  time  taken  from  work.  Compre- 
hension of  these  things  is  part  of  the  preacher's 
equipment.  Freshness  is  a  substantial  part  of 
inspiration.  Nobody  needs  more  to  be  reminded  of 
this  than  the  man  who  week  after  week  must  preach 
to  the  same  congregation. 

All  opportunities  are  neighbors  to  risk.  Oppor- 
tunities for  social  contact  are  no  exception.  Many  a 
minister  has  been  undone  by  seeming  to  toady  to  the 
rich.  An  after-dinner  speaker  raised  a  hearty  laugh 
recently  by  making  this  caustic  comment:  "We  are 
told,"  said  he,  "that  the  rich  will  hardly  enter  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  but  I  observe  that  in  the  mean- 
while they  are  well  received  in  the  churches."  The 
minister  must  at  all  hazards  avoid  the  danger  of 
intimacy  with  only  a  few  families  in  his  congregation. 
A  visit  to  some  houses  is  a  pleasant  experience.  A 
call  at  others  requires  an  output  of  will-power.  But 
the  minister  should  not  work  along  lines  of  least 
resistance.  He  is  probably  most  needed  where  it  is 
hardest  for  him  to  go.  The  critical  time  is  at  the 
beginning  of  the  pastoral  relation.  He  should  be 
careful  not  to  commit  himself  to  anybody  until  he  has 
studied  the  entire  situation.  In  particular  he  should 
be  on  his  guard  against  those  who  are  at  pains  to  let 
him  know  that  they  were  instrumental  in  securing  his 
call.  It  is  an  unlovely  spectacle  to  see  a  clergyman 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  87 

dominated  by  a  lay  dictator.  It  is  hard  to  say  whose 
spiritual  life  will  suffer  more  from  such  a  relation. 
The  minister  should  never  surrender  his  independence 
of  judgment  or  submerge  his  convictions  merely  to 
please.  On  the  other  hand,  the  obtrusion  of  angular 
convictions  is  not  in  itself  a  virtue.  The  preacher 
should  be  a  gentleman  always,  although  a  gentleman 
unafraid. 

One  of  the  disadvantages  from  which  a  preacher  is 
apt  to  suffer  is  the  lack  of  opportunity  to  measure 
himself  with  other  men.  Some  preachers  live  in  an 
unreal  world  and  spend  their  time  in  making  uncon- 
vincing arguments.  The  lawyer  is  soon  brought  to 
his  senses  if  he  persists  in  pressing  points  that  lack 
the  power  to  penetrate.  The  court  listens  and  decides 
against  him.  Under  similar  circumstances  the 
preacher  blames  the  man  in  the  pew.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, it  is  really  the  preacher  that  is  to  blame.  The 
judge  is  paid  to  listen  or  at  least  to  sit.  The  man  in 
the  pew  is  under  no  financial  obligation  to  do  either. 
After  a  few  unconvincing  discourses  he  stays  away. 

A  sermon  should  be  long  in  preparation.  It  should 
grow  rather  than  be  made  and  there  should  be  several 
under  way  at  once.  It  would  be  well  if  a  preacher 
were  on  such  terms  with  his  men  that  it  were  possible 
even  to  talk  over  a  sermon  in  the  course  of  its  prepara- 
tion. Nothing  draws  people  closer  to  one  another 
than  to  think  things  out  together.  It  would  be  an 
interesting  situation  if  when  the  sermon  were  finally 
preached  a  little  group  of  men  should  have  toward  it 
a  sense  of  co-proprietorship.  As  a  teacher  of  law  I 


88  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

am  sure  that  an  important  part  of  preparation  for 
classroom  instruction  is  to  talk  the  subject  over  with 
a  group  of  students.  Whether  it  is  feasible  for  the 
preacher  to  confer  with  such  an  avowed  aim  is,  of 
course,  dependent  on  circumstances.  But  the 
preacher  will  do  well  to  take  every  opportunity  to 
ascertain  the  point  of  view  of  the  people  in  the  pews, 
no  matter  how  humble  their  walk  in  life.  This  is  not 
in  order  to  speak  only  such  things  as  are  acceptable 
to  them  but  to  learn  how  to  express  himself  in  terms 
that  are  intelligible  and  how  best  he  can  reveal  to 
them  that  which  is  hidden  from  their  eyes.  It  will 
generally  be  of  advantage  to  seek  discussion  with  men 
rather  than  with  women.  Women  are  sympathetic 
and  are  often  ready  to  applaud  when  stern  criticism 
is  the  real  need.  This  is  especially  true  with  respect 
to  dogmatic  utterances  with  which  they  happen  to  be 
in  agreement.  I  have  known  a  devout  woman  to  con- 
gratulate a  preacher  upon  an  utterance  not  needed  by 
those  who  were  ready  to  assent  and  calculated  per- 
manently to  estrange  everybody  else.  Congratula- 
tions to  a  preacher  should  be  sparingly  given  and 
should  be  accepted  with  reserve.  It  is  related  that  a 
youth  on  several  successive  Sundays  made  his  way 
after  service  to  Phillips  Brooks  and  each  time  said. 
"O  Bishop  Brooks,  that  was  to  me  a  most  helpful 
sermon."  After  submitting  patiently  for  some  time 
the  Bishop  one  day  burst  forth  at  him  and  exclaimed, 
"Young  man,  if  you  ever  say  that  again  I  shall  have 
to  strike  you!"  "That  was  a  wonderful  sermon!" 
said  a  lady  to  a  distinguished  English  preacher. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  89 

"Madam,"  he  replied,  "so  the  devil  told  me  as  I 
descended  the  pulpit  stairs." 

The  minister  owes  it  to  himself  as  well  as  to  his  peo- 
ple to  be  in  touch  with  the  life  of  the  whole  com- 
munity. It  is  always  to  be  regretted  when  he  stands 
aloof  from  civic  activities  and  from  sympathetic  con- 
tact with  the  various  social  agencies  which  are  striving 
to  serve  its  needs.  If  societies  for  organizing  charity 
are  suspicious  of  the  methods  of  churches  in  dealing 
with  the  dependent,  it  is  because  the  churches  have 
been  more  concerned  with  the  state  of  mind  of  him 
who  gives  than  with  the  effect  of  the  gift  on  him  who 
takes.  On  the  other  hand,  the  social  worker  is  in- 
clined to  take  the  spirit  of  service  for  granted  and  to 
consider  chiefly  the  welfare  of  the  person  who  is 
served. 

If  you  were  to  ask  a  thoughtful  Roman  Catholic 
for  a  statement  of  the  theory  on  which  his  church 
proceeds  in  this  matter  he  would  probably  express 
himself  somewhat  as  follows:  "The  primary  duty 
which  is  enjoined  upon  the  faithful  is  to  strive  for  a 
pure  intention — to  act,  that  is,  solely  from  the  love  of 
God.  If  a  man  who  has  achieved  this  purity  of  inten- 
tion undertakes  to  relieve  distress  he  need  not  give 
himself  much  concern  as  to  the  effect  of  his  bounty 
upon  the  recipient;  for  he  is  well  assured  that  the 
subtle  influence  exerted  by  pure  charity  will  be  such 
as  is  acceptable  with  God." 

If  on  the  other  hand  you  were  to  ask  a  social  worker 
to  state  the  aim  of  organized  charity  he  would  make 
some  such  statement  as  this:  "Its  aim  is  the  rehabili- 


90  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

tation  or  restoration  of  the  family  to  a  condition  of 
self-support  and  normal  life,  along  both  economic 
and  moral  lines.  To  attain  this  goal,  it  seeks  in  each 
individual  case  the  causes  of  distress  and  poverty,  and 
aims  to  remove  them  through  a  constructive  plan  of 
necessary  assistance  and  friendly  guidance.  A  real 
co-operation  between  relatives,  friends,  employers, 
churches  and  charitable  agencies  is  obtained  in  devel- 
oping the  resources  and  self-effort  of  each  family. 
The  same  principles  apply  to  the  individual  as  to  the 
family;  though  the  family  is  recognized  as  the  impor- 
tant unit  of  the  community." 

The  man  in  the  crowd,  looking  on  at  the  work  of 
church  and  society,  is  inclined  to  ask  how  long  it  will 
be  before  each  will  recognize  in  the  other  an  ally. 
Granted  a  pure  intention  (which,  alas,  is  probably  in 
fact  rare)  the  charitable  act  is  certainly  deprived  of 
none  of  its  blessing  to  the  doer  merely  because  it  takes 
a  form  proved  by  experience  to  be  actually  helpful  to 
the  recipient.  On  the  other  hand,  the  society's  "con- 
structive plan  of  necessary  assistance  and  friendly 
guidance"  will  surely  be  none  the  less  edifying  if 
administered  by  one  whose  religion  has  inspired  him 
with  pure  intention.  It  seems  idle  to  deny  that  both 
of  these  considerations  are  important.  The  one  is 
the  complement  of  the  other.  Instead  of  regarding 
one  another  with  suspicion,  the  church  and  the  society 
should  strive  to  co-operate.  If  the  preacher  can  lead 
his  people  to  express  their  religion  in  the  form  of 
service,  then  those  people  are  the  very  ones  whose 
help  the  society  should  welcome.  Those  who  thus 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  91 

have  gained  their  inspiration  through  the  church 
should  be  willing,  on  their  side,  to  be  guided  in  the 
manifestation  of  their  love  by  students  of  the  special 
needs  of  the  unprivileged.  It  may  be  that  those  who 
are  jealous  for  the  influence  of  the  church  are  unwill- 
ing that  any  other  organization  should  have  the  credit 
of  administering  relief.  But  if  the  worker  is  in  fact 
receiving  his  inspiration  from  the  church  and  if 
through  contact  he  is  seeking  to  reveal  God  to  the 
unprivileged  brother,  it  is  after  all  the  worker  him- 
self and  not  his  organization  that  is  the  real  medium 
of  revelation.  The  man  who  is  served  is  quick  to  ask 
himself  what  is  the  motive  of  the  service  that  is  being 
rendered  to  him.  The  instant  he  perceives  that  the 
power  of  his  benefactor  is  derived  from  religious 
belief,  at  that  instant  the  grateful  man  is  constrained 
to  give  God  praise. 

The  dangerous  element  in  organized  charity  is 
over-emphasis  on  the  recipient.  A  preacher  really 
sympathetic  with  the  aim  and  method  of  organized 
charity  may  be  of  great  service  in  correcting  this  over- 
emphasis. The  worker  himself  is,  after  all,  the  charity 
society's  best  asset.  His  spiritual  culture  can  be 
neglected  only  at  peril.  No  service  to  another  is  as  a 
rule  effective  unless  it  is  a  service  of  love.  That  form 
of  service  is  to  be  discouraged  which  is  merely  a  mani- 
festation of  nervous  energy.  God  help  the  unprivi- 
leged brother  to  whose  other  misfortunes  is  added  this 
one — to  be  the  object  of  the  ministrations  of  a  social 
worker  in  whom  training  is  substituted  for  experience 
and  in  whose  estimation  method  may  properly  replace 


92  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

love.  Moreover,  the  spiritual  needs  of  those  upon 
whom  organized  charity  depends  for  support  must 
never  be  overlooked.  Their  annual  subscriptions 
will  not  keep  their  hearts  warm.  Drawing  checks  is 
not  necessarily  charity.  Their  love  for  the  brethren 
must  be  aroused  and  stimulated.  To  this  end, 
appeals  and  "sob-stories"  will  not  suffice.  The  reve- 
lation of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  always  has  been  and 
always  will  be  the  thing  which  makes  men  live  their 
lives  for  their  brethren. 

The  question  is  often  raised  whether  a  minister 
should  mix  in  politics  and  discuss  political  questions 
from  the  pulpit.  Because  he  is  a  minister  he  does  not 
cease  to  be  a  man  and  he  is  clearly  subject  to  the 
citizen's  duty  to  cast  an  intelligent  vote.  If  a  moral 
issue  were  to  be  presented  at  the  polls  it  may  be  con- 
ceded that  he  would  have  a  duty  to  perform  not  only 
as  a  citizen  but  as  a  Christian  minister.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  genuine  moral  issue  in  fact  seldom  arises.  It 
is  not  often  that  all  people  who  vote  one  way  may 
properly  be  described  as  good  and  all  who  vote  the 
other  way  as  bad.  A  preacher  who  tries  to  throw  the 
weight  of  the  Gospel  into  one  political  scale  is  usually 
either  a  superficial  thinker  or  a  careless  investigator 
of  facts.  The  mere  fact  that  the  people  of  his  con- 
gregation are  divided  in  political  allegiance  is  not  a 
reason  for  stifling  his  freedom  of  speech.  It  is, 
however,  an  excellent  reason  for  not  going  out  of  his 
way  to  increase  the  already  considerable  difficulty  of 
helping  them  on  to  a  knowledge  of  God.  The 
preacher's  primary  duty  is  revelation.  I  do  not  say 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  93 

that  political  utterance  never  helps  the  discharge  of 
this  duty.  I  do  say  that  this  is  seldom  the  case.  It  is 
a  great  temptation  to  a  man  who  has  a  decided  politi- 
cal opinion  to  announce  it  from  the  pulpit  or  through 
the  press  and  so  to  lend  to  his  side  of  the  question 
whatever  official  weight  his  utterance  carries.  But 
this  he  has  no  right  whatever  to  do.  He  is  in  a  posi- 
tion of  trust  and  he  must  be  scrupulously  careful  not 
to  take  advantage  of  it.  His  rule  should  be  to  refrain 
from  political  utterance  unless  he  cannot  honestly 
quiet  his  conscience  in  so  doing.  In  that  event  let  him 
make  haste  slowly  and  before  he  speaks  let  him  confer 
with  the  most  reputable  man  he  can  find  who  holds  the 
view  which  he  proposes  to  denounce.  If  after  such  a 
conference  his  duty  to  speak  still  seems  clear,  let  him 
by  all  means  speak  his  mind,  but  temperately  and  as 
if  Our  Lord  were  within  hearing. 

While  the  preacher  should  live  the  life  of  his  com- 
munity he  must  not  allow  himself  to  be  distracted  by 
a  multitude  of  engagements  and  to  be  cumbered  by 
much  serving.  The  passion  for  committees  and  the 
lust  for  meetings  seem  to  be  American  weaknesses. 
I  have  known  pastors  who  were  always  so  busy  rush- 
ing about  to  keep  appointments  of  this  sort  that  with 
them  nervousness  took  the  place  of  inspiration  and 
they  could  no  longer  look  long  enough  in  one  direc- 
tion to  see  God's  face  anywhere.  I  admit,  of  course, 
that  committee  meetings  are  necessary  and  must  be 
attended;  but  I  suggest  that  in  connection  with  Chris- 
tian work  there  are  more  of  them  than  there  need  be. 
And  I  am  convinced  by  long  experience  that  in  almost 


94  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

all  of  them  entirely  too  little  time  is  spent  in  trying  to 
ascertain  God's  will  respecting  the  matter  in  hand. 
The  perfunctory  and  mechanical  opening  prayer 
often  seems  more  like  an  insult  to  Almighty  God  than 
an  invocation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  would  be  well  if 
on  such  occasions  we  were  to  remain  in  silence  for  a 
considerable  time,  each  making  a  genuine  effort  at 
mental  prayer.  At  the  end  of  such  an  experience  as 
this  an  earnest  petition  for  guidance  would  in  all  like- 
lihood express  the  honest  aspiration  of  all  present. 
The  minister  should  quietly  use  his  influence  to  invert 
the  usual  allotment  of  time  at  meetings.  People 
should  be  taught  to  talk  less,  think  more  and  pray 
most. 

Contact  with  life  at  all  points  brings  a  variety  of 
temptations  and  opportunities.  Among  the  tempta- 
tions is  the  lure  of  newspaper  publicity.  There  is  a 
certain  type  of  minister  whose  sermons  are  "featured" 
by  the  press  and  whose  picture  is  often  obtruded  upon 
our  attention.  I  do  not  underestimate  the  power  and 
use  of  publicity,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
less  of  it  a  minister  gets  the  greater  the  respect  which 
his  people  feel  for  him.  It  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
refrain  from  talking  for  the  papers.  When  publicity 
is  the  real  motive  of  the  talk  the  utterance  is  seldom 
an  instrument  of  revelation. 

The  minister  is  apt  to  have  opportunities  to  speak 
in  public  on  secular  occasions.  Such  opportunities 
should  be  availed  of  in  moderation.  Even  an  after- 
dinner  speech  may  prove  to  be  an  occasion  of  fruitful 
contact  with  men.  But  the  preacher  should  remember 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  95 

that  the  man  in  the  crowd  is  an  inconsistent  chap.  He 
condemns  the  minister  if  he  stands  aloof  and  turns 
from  him  in  disgust  if  he  makes  himself  too  cheap.  I 
have  attended  banquets  at  which  a  minister  was  among 
the  speakers  and  I  have  concluded  that  his  bearing 
and  utterance  were  serviceable  to  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  church.  On  other  such  occasions 
I  have  blushed  for  the  speaker  and  have  been  con- 
vinced that  he  was  doing  his  cause  harm.  Occasions 
of  the  latter  sort  have  usually  been  those  on  which  the 
minister  tried  either  to  preach  or  to  be  funny.  To 
preach  at  such  times  indicates  that  the  man  has  no 
sense  of  fitness.  To  attempt  to  be  funny  usually 
involves  a  sacrifice  of  that  dignity  which  is  the  proper 
characteristic  of  a  representative  of  organized  Chris- 
tianity. Kipling's  advice  is  well  worth  following — 
not  to  look  too  good  or  talk  too  wise.  Though  the 
speech  is  not  a  sermon  it  should  contain  a  serious 
thought — something  which  that  particular  group 
ought  to  hear.  Though  jokes  must  not  be  lugged  in 
just  for  the  sake  of  making  them,  yet  the  speaker 
should  aim  at  lightness  of  touch,  for  his  hearers  are 
there  to  have  a  good  time.  A  wholesome  lesson  may 
often  be  inculcated  by  a  humorous  story  and  the  lis- 
teners will  be  grateful  if  the  speaker  keeps  them  alter- 
nating between  gravity  and  gaiety.  The  minister  at 
these  times  need  not  aim  to  do  more  than  to  give  men 
an  assurance  that  he  and  his  organization  are  in  sym- 
pathy with  them  and  theirs,  and  to  show  them  by  his 
own  bearing  that  religion  is  not  gloom  but  gladness, 
and  that,  where  Christ  is,  water  becomes  wine. 


96  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

The  student  in  the  law  school  is  apt  to  think  of  his 
several  subjects  of  study  as  together  comprising  all 
that  a  lawyer  need  know.  The  principles  and  prece- 
dents in  the  law  of  property,  of  contracts,  of  torts  and 
of  crimes;  the  doctrines  of  constitutional  law  and  of 
equity  jurisprudence;  the  rules  of  procedure  in  all 
its  branches — these  and  their  related  subjects  are 
seemingly  trackless  forests,  to  explore  which  appears 
to  be  the  whole  end  of  man.  To  accomplish  his  pur- 
pose he  is  ready,  if  really  in  earnest, 

"to  shun  delights  and  live  laborious  days" 

or  (in  Lord  Eldon's  phrase)  "to  live  like  a  hermit 
and  work  like  a  horse."  But  he  has  not  been  long  in 
active  practice  before  he  finds  that  there  is  one  subject 
more  important  than  all  the  others — and  that  is  the 
study  of  people.  To  find  out  what  is  latent  in  the 
client's  mind,  to  ascertain  what  is  really  in  the  wit- 
ness's memory,  to  discover  what  method  of  presenta- 
tion is  most  likely  to  commend  his  argument  to  the 
court — these  are  things  which  the  lawyer  can  learn 
only  through  contact  with  his  fellow  creatures.  I  sus- 
pect that  the  case  is  not  altogether  different  with  the 
preacher.  I  suppose  that  a  young  man  may  shine  in 
the  seminary  and  yet  intensify  the  darkness  of  the 
world.  This  is  true  as  a  matter  of  course  if  he  is  not 
sound  morally.  But  it  may  likewise  be  true  even  if 
he  is  honestly  trying  to  draw  near  to  God,  unless  at 
the  same  time  he  is  seeking  diligently  for  opportuni- 
ties of  contact  with  men.  It  means  little  to  assert  that 
Christianity  is  a  social  religion  unless  the  minister  of 


REVELATION  THROUGH  CONTACT  97 

Christ  shares  the  life  of  his  fellow  disciples.  In 
season  and  out  he  must  strive  to  make  them  realize 
that  his  life  is  at  their  disposal.  If  he  does  this  for 
their  sake,  not  officiously,  but  because  it  is  the  method 
of  the  Incarnation,  he  will  some  day  have  the  happi- 
ness of  knowing  that  all  the  while  he  was  being  used 
by  God  as  a  medium  of  revelation.  In  the  meantime, 
and  in  virtue  of  such  contact,  sermons  will  be  con- 
ceived within  him.  In  a  very  real  sense  the  Holy 
Ghost  will  come  upon  him  and  the  power  of  the  Most 
Highest  will  overshadow  him.  And  when  he  rises 
to  speak  to  his  people  peradventure  they  will  be 
astonished  at  his  doctrine:  for  he  will  teach  them  as 
one  having  authority  and  not  as  the  man  whose  ser- 
mon is  musty  and  smells  of  books. 


IV 

REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING 

Let  us  suppose  for  a  moment  that  we  were  to  be- 
come as  zealous  in  behalf  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  as 
our  German  brethren  have  proved  themselves  to  be 
in  the  service  of  the  Kaiser.  In  other  words,  let  the 
supposition  be  that  we  are  terribly  in  earnest  in  our 
Christian  profession.  It  is  interesting  to  speculate 
what  changes  in  our  way  of  doing  things  would  in 
that  event  take  place.  Whatever  else  might  happen, 
undoubtedly  we  should  take  the  subject  of  religious 
education  more  seriously  than  we  do  now. 

The  present  situation  seems  to  me  to  call  for  the 
best  thought  that  Christian  statesmen  can  devote  to 
it.  All  are  agreed  that  the  experience  for  which  a 
youth  must  be  prepared  is  the  experience  of  living. 
Education  is  his  equipment  for  life.  The  Christian 
theory  is  that  life  is  full  of  God.  The  soul,  we  affirm, 
came  forth  from  God  and  to  Him  it  will  return. 
External  nature  is  His  work.  The  movements  of 
history  are  the  working  out  of  God's  plan  for  the  race. 
The  happiness  of  the  individual  depends  upon  ascer- 
taining His  will  and  conforming  to  it.  Through  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  every  man  is 
enabled  to  find  the  way  to  the  Father.  Having  been 
told  thus  much,  a  visitor  from  Mars  would  doubtless 
draw  the  prompt  conclusion  that  our  educational  sys- 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING          99 

tern  must  surely  be  developed  in  conformity  with  our 
theory  respecting  the  life  for  which  it  is  a  prepara- 
tion. 

If  the  matter  in  hand  were  anything  of  subordinate 
importance,  a  conclusion  based  on  such  reasoning 
would  be  correct.  If,  for  example,  preparations  were 
being  made  for  a  polar  journey,  the  inference  would 
not  be  wrong  that  the  equipment  included  warm  cloth- 
ing and  an  abundance  of  provisions.  If  a  military 
campaign  were  in  contemplation,  it  would  not  be 
hazardous  to  affirm  that  the  topography  of  the  war 
zone  was  being  studied  minutely,  as  well  as  the  method 
of  sustaining  an  invading  army  and  the  number  and 
distribution  of  the  enemy's  forces.  We  can  accord- 
ingly imagine  the  astonishment  of  the  Martian  when 
informed  that  in  the  matter  of  preparation  for  life 
we  follow  an  entirely  different  plan  and  carefully 
exclude  God  from  education.  To  his  request  for  an 
explanation  we  make  answer  that  education  used  to 
be  based  on  the  Christian  theory  but  that  the  experi- 
ment did  not  work  well  and  was  abandoned.  At  this 
his  face  brightens.  "Of  course,  then,  you  likewise 
gave  up  the  Christian  theory,"  he  remarks.  "By  no 
means,"  we  rejoin.  "We  still  maintain  that  this  is 
the  only  permissible  theory  by  which  to  live.  All  we 
have  done  is  to  allow  this  truth  to  be  discredited  in 
the  minds  of  our  children."  "Am  I  to  infer,"  he  asks 
in  bewilderment,  "that  you  really  want  your  children 
to  accept  the  Christian  theory  as  their  philosophy  of 
life  but  that  you  suffer  them  to  be  trained  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  its  acceptance  difficult  or  even  im- 


100  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

possible?"  "Of  course,"  we  reply  blandly.  A  look 
of  hopelessness  settles  upon  his  face.  After  a  pause 
he  says  politely,  "I  think  it  is  time  I  was  returning  to 
Mars." 

I  shall  at  this  point  be  told  by  some  that  the  Mar- 
tian is  being  permitted  to  depart  after  a  very  imper- 
fect statement  of  the  facts. 

In  the  first  place,  my  critic  will  say,  nothing  was 
said  to  the  visitor  about  the  excellence  of  our  public 
school  system.  He  was  not  told  of  the  marvelous 
efficiency  of  our  machinery  of  secular  education. 

My  answer  is  that  on  the  Christian  theory  there 
are  really  no  such  things  as  secular  and  religious 
education.  We  refuse  to  concede  that  the  individual 
is  constructed  on  the  longitudinal  bulkhead  plan — 
with  the  world  on  one  side  of  a  division  wall  and  God 
on  the  other.  His  life  is  not  supposed  to  be  a  life  of 
divided  allegiance,  part  of  his  time  being  given  to 
God  and  part  to  mammon.  Upon  the  Christian 
theory,  to  know  God  is  the  end  and  aim  of  existence. 
The  process  of  attaining  to  this  knowledge  is  educa- 
tion. Subtract  God  and  you  get — not  secular  educa- 
tion, but  no  education  at  all.  If  this  theory  is  un- 
sound our  public  school  system  may  be  all  right.  If, 
however,  the  theory  is  valid,  then  the  public  school 
system  is  fundamentally  wrong. 

"But  even  so,"  says  my  critic,  "you  failed  to  men- 
tion the  Sunday  school.  In  the  Sunday  school  rests 
the  hope  of  the  nation." 

It  is  my  earnest  desire  to  express  hearty  approval 
of  Sunday  schools  and  to  record  my  admiration  for 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        101 

much  of  their  work.  At  the  same  time,  however,  I 
wish  to  register  my  conviction  that  they  cannot  be  a 
final  solution  of  the  problem  of  Christian  education. 
The  Sunday  school  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  an  agency 
which  attempts  on  one  day  in  seven  to  repair  the 
damage  systematically  done  to  the  Christian  theory 
of  life  during  the  other  six.  There  should  not  be  in 
a  Christian  community  two  coexisting  educational 
systems,  one  developed  upon  the  theory  that  life  and 
the  universe  are  complete  without  God  and  the  other 
upon  the  theory  that  both  life  and  the  universe  are 
merely  the  sphere  of  God's  self-revelation.  During 
six  days  we  permit  it  to  be  understood  that  heaven 
and  earth  were  not  created  by  God  and  on  the 
seventh  we  present  a  rather  feeble  apology  to  the 
Creator  for  having  seemed  to  take  credit  for  His 
work.  During  the  week  we  make  it  a  matter  of  com- 
pulsion with  the  child  to  live  in  a  world  from  which 
God  is  excluded.  On  Sunday  we  coax  him  to  attend 
an  optional  course  dedicated  to  the  theory  that  the 
world  is  full  of  God.  I  call  it  an  optional  course, 
because  while  the  children  of  some  families  are  com- 
pelled by  their  parents  to  attend  Sunday  school,  the 
vast  majority  of  children  are  not.  Those  who  are 
thus  compelled,  conclude  quite  naturally  that  they 
are  suffering  merely  for  the  idiosyncrasy  of  their  own 
parents  and  that  the  normal  and  rational  Sunday 
occupation  is  that  of  their  little  friends  and  neighbors 
who  are  permitted  to  feast  to  satiety  upon  the  pic- 
torial supplement  to  the  Sunday  paper. 

"Again  you  are  unfair,"  says  my  critic.    "You  are 


102  A.  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

assuming  between  the  Sunday  school  and  the  public 
school  an  antagonism  which  does  not  exist.  The 
public  school  system  is  not  hostile  to  the  Christian 
theory.  We  merely  recognize  that  there  are  insuper- 
able difficulties  in  the  way  of  teaching  religion  with 
the  taxpayers'  money  and  so  we  confine  ourselves  to 
teaching  children  reading,  writing,  spelling,  mathe- 
matics, history,  geography,  language — all  the  sub- 
jects which  are  in  their  nature  secular.  We  leave  it  to 
the  churches  to  supplement  this  instruction  by  teach- 
ing their  own  children  what  they  please."  Perhaps  I 
can  best  meet  this  criticism  by  stating  explicitly  what 
I  have  already  implied — that  upon  the  Christian 
theory  there  are  no  subjects  of  study  which  are  in 
their  nature  secular.  A  better  way  of  saying  the  same 
thing  is  to  assert  that  a  Christian  teacher,  really  in 
earnest  about  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom,  would  use 
the  teaching  of  every  subject  as  an  opportunity  to 
reveal  God  to  the  child.  Preachers  are  always  pro- 
claiming that  there  is  not  one  morality  for  Sunday 
and  another  for  week  days  and  that  we  must  carry 
into  our  daily  work  the  practice  of  our  religious  pro- 
fession. This  means  merely  that  all  the  world  and 
all  of  life  belong  to  God;  that  we  are  not  our  own; 
that  whether  we  live  or  die  we  are  the  Lord's.  If 
this  is  true  in  general  it  must  be  true  in  particular. 
It  means,  among  other  things,  that  in  the  relations  of 
number  and  magnitude  are  to  be  had  glimpses  of 
divine  harmony.  It  means  that  through  physical 
science  man  is  permitted  a  peep  into  the  workings  of 
the  Divine  Mind.  It  means  that  in  the  movements 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        103 

of  history  are  to  be  seen  God's  ways  of  dealing  with 
nations  and  individuals.  It  means  that  the  highest 
use  that  can  be  made  of  language  is  in  communica- 
tion with  man's  unseen  Friend  and  that  the  greatest 
use  ever  made  of  writing  was  the  recording  of  the 
Word  of  God.  To  teach  all  subjects  in  the  school 
curriculum  as  purely  secular  is  not  merely  to  lose  a 
great  Christian  opportunity  but  to  render  almost 
impossible  the  subsequent  effort  to  inject  God  into 
His  creation.  That  which  a  child  is  taught  syste- 
matically and  day  by  day  will  in  the  child's  mind 
stand  finally  as  the  complete  embodiment  of  all  that 
is  really  important.  If  religious  instruction  is  sup- 
plementary and  optional  the  chance  is  very  great  that 
religion  itself  will  soon  come  to  be  so  regarded. 

To  all  of  these  rather  jejune  observations  my  critic 
in  closing  will  perhaps  make  this  effective  rejoinder: 
"What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  You  talk  as  if 
everybody  in  the  community  were  a  Christian  and  as 
if  all  the  Christians  were  in  agreement  in  regard  to 
religious  teaching.  The  simple  fact  is  that  you  cannot 
tax  non-Christians  in  order  to  teach  the  Christian 
theory  and,  if  you  could,  the  Christians  would 
squabble  over  the  use  of  tax  money  in  a  way  disas- 
trous to  all  theories  of  education  but  most  gratifying 
to  the  ungodly."  This  rejoinder  forces  me  to  admit 
that  I  have  been  building  upon  a  condition  contrary 
to  fact.  My  frail  thought,  as  Milton  would  say,  has 
been  dallying  with  false  surmise.  In  all  that  I  have 
said  I  have  been  trying  to  portray  our  educational 
system  as  it  would  look  to  us  if  this  were  a  Christian 


104  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

community  and  if  we  were  really  as  much  in  earnest 
about  our  religion  as  our  German  brethren  are  about 
the  Kaiser's  cause.  The  fact,  of  course,  is  that  the 
great  majority  of  Christians  are  not  in  earnest.  As 
Law  quaintly  observes  in  a  certain  passage,1  we  do 
not  so  much  as  intend  to  live  the  Christian  life.  If 
in  our  own  daily  practice  we  set  at  naught  the  unity 
of  the  Christian  theory,  and  if  great  numbers  of  our 
brethren  do  not  even  profess  to  be  Christians,  there  is 
after  all  a  certain  propriety  in  maintaining  a  double 
educational  standard.  Taking  things  as  they  are, 
perhaps  an  excellent  system  of  secular  education, 
entirely  non-committal  on  religious  matters,  with  an 
optional  opportunity  to  give  supplementary  Christian 
instruction,  is  a  rather  better  state  of  affairs  than 
we  have  a  right  to  expect. 

But  this  being  so,  the  vital  question  then  arises 
whether  we  can  allow  things  to  remain  as  they  are  and 
still  maintain  the  Christian  theory.  I  am  of  course 
aware  that  part  of  that  theory  is  that  Christianity  will 
survive  no  matter  what  Christians  do  or  leave  undone. 
I  frankly  admit  that  this  is  for  me  a  baffling  concep- 
tion. If,  for  example,  all  Christians  were  to  cease  to 
be  Christians  I  should  find  it  hard  to  conceive  of  the 
persistence  of  Christianity  in  the  abstract.  If  all  that 
is  meant  is  that  there  never  will  in  fact  come  a  time 
when  all  Christians  shall  cease  to  be  such,  I  do  not 
find  in  the  prophecy  much  that  is  comforting  to  you 
and  me.  Our  Lord  has  indeed  promised  not  to 

1  A  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,  Chap.  II. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        105 

forsake  us;  but  we  surely  have  it  in  our  power  to 
forsake  Him.  The  question  for  us  is  whether  we  are 
spiritually  safe  in  behaving  as  if  the  survival  of  Chris- 
tianity is  a  thing  which  does  not  concern  us.  I  observe 
that  Saint  Paul  and  the  other  great  propagators  of 
Christianity  did  not  act  as  if  the  assured  persistence 
of  Christ's  teaching  justified  inertia  on  their  part. 
They  evidently  believed  that  Christian  teaching  and 
Christian  preaching  were  laid  upon  them  as  sacred 
obligations.  They  did  not  make  the  popular  modern 
distinction  between  Christianity  as  a  disembodied 
spirit,  which  is  a  blessing  to  the  world,  and  the  organ- 
ized fellowship  of  Christian  disciples  which  some  of 
our  contemporaries  regard  as  a  curse.  The  church  of 
the  Christian  pioneers  was  an  ecclesia  docens  and  its 
persistence  was  deemed  essential  to  the  survival  of 
Christianity.  The  real  basis  for  satisfaction  over  the 
collapse  of  the  Christian  church  would  not  be  the 
nearer  prospect  of  the  reign  of  Christ  but  the  sense  of 
relief  felt  by  sluggish  disciples  because  teaching  and 
preaching  were  no  more. 

If,  then,  a  duty  is  laid  upon  us  to  propagate  our 
religion,  how  can  the  duty  be  discharged?  What,  in 
this  respect,  is  the  function  of  the  preacher?  These 
questions,  as  I  indicated  at  the  outset,  are  entirely  too 
serious  to  be  ignored. 

It  is  sometimes  assumed  that  the  missionary  propa- 
ganda is  a  sufficient  discharge  of  our  duty  in  this  par- 
ticular. The  revival  of  the  missionary  spirit  within 
the  last  few  years  and  the  splendid  achievements  of 
Christian  missionaries  throughout  the  world  are 


106  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

justly  regarded  with  satisfaction  and  thankfulness. 
But  missionary  enterprise  implies  at  least  two  things : 
a  home  church  and  a  communicable  message.  Unless 
we  are  instructed  in  those  things  which  are  of  the  es- 
sense  of  Christianity  the  very  existence  of  the  church 
is  threatened.  Unless  we  can  formulate  intelligently 
those  beliefs  which  are  our  spiritual  heritage  we  shall 
be  dumb  in  the  presence  of  the  souls  whom  we  fain 
would  evangelize.  The  teaching  of  our  own  children 
is  not  less  important  than  carrying  the  Gospel  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  If  to  missionary  enterprise  we 
assign,  as  mere  matter  of  definition,  a  scope  broad 
enough  to  include  Christian  education,  we  shall 
simply  be  restating  our  problem  instead  of  solving  it. 

Sometimes  it  is  said  that  the  teaching  of  religion 
should  be  left  to  private  schools.  In  such  institutions 
"sacred  studies"  may  properly  be  included  in  the  cur- 
riculum. Since  everybody  goes  to  these  schools  with 
his  eyes  open,  there  can  be  no  basis  for  the  complaint 
that  religion  is  being  forced  upon  the  unwilling. 

The  difficulty  with  the  teaching  of  religion  in  most 
private  schools  is  that  in  them  emphasis  is  necessarily 
laid  upon  those  subjects  of  study  which  are  required 
for  admission  to  college.  Any  attempt  to  teach  sacred 
studies  must  be  confessedly  an  attempt  to  do  some- 
thing additional  to  the  required  work — to  superadd  a 
course  not  deemed  essential  by  the  institution  of 
higher  education  which  it  is  the  student's  ambition  to 
enter.  Apart  from  the  fact,  therefore,  that  the  stu- 
dents in  private  schools  are  relatively  few  in  number, 
there  seem  to  be  serious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  thus 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        107 

directing  into  religious  channels  the  current  of  Ameri- 
can education.  The  headmaster  of  a  preparatory 
school  can  do  much  to  influence  the  boys  with  whom  he 
comes  into  contact,  but  the  rigor  of  college  require- 
ments deprives  him  to  a  great  extent  of  his  power  to 
mould  the  work  of  the  school.  Most  of  our  colleges 
and  universities  are  administered  upon  a  principle 
which  divides  religion  from  education.  In  so  far, 
therefore,  as  the  university  exerts  an  influence  upon 
the  preparatory  school  or  upon  the  life  of  its  own 
students  it  is  a  non-religious  influence.  In  many  in- 
stances the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  university  is 
definitely  hostile  to  organized  Christianity.  The 
Christian  Association  and  similar  agencies  may  make 
brave  efforts  to  counteract  in  the  lives  of  the  students 
the  adverse  influences  which  emanate  from  the  class- 
rooms. But  this  work  is  conducted  under  grave  dis- 
advantage. Those  who  are  carrying  it  on  must  over- 
come the  presumption  aroused  by  the  fact  that  the 
university  itself  either  ignores  the  propaganda  or  is 
measurably  opposed  to  it.  We  include  nowadays 
among  subjects  studied  in  the  universities  many 
courses  with  high-sounding  names  which  are  scarcely 
more  than  opportunities  for  instructors  to  express 
their  individual  views  upon  the  great  problems  of  life. 
One  desires  to  be  just  to  the  fine  body  of  young  men 
who,  for  small  pecuniary  compensation,  are  giving 
their  lives  to  the  noble  work  of  teaching  youth  in  the 
colleges  and  universities  of  the  country.  As  a  class 
they  are  earnest,  honest,  industrious  and  full  of  en- 
thusiasm for  their  work.  But  after  all  is  said  that 


108  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

their  merit  demands,  one  finds  it  hard  to  approve  the 
oracular  element  in  some  of  their  utterances  upon 
grave  social  and  religious  questions.  If  instructors 
were  wont  to  place  themselves  unreservedly  and  in 
inconspicuous  ways  at  the  service  of  the  poor  and  the 
unprivileged  they  would  acquire  that  element  of 
authority  which  is  an  incident  of  experience  in  the 
relief  of  human  woe.  In  the  absence  of  opportunity 
for  such  contact  with  life,  preaching  from  the  instruc- 
tor's rostrum  is  even  more  harmful  than  preaching 
from  the  pulpit  is  apt  to  be  under  similar  conditions. 
The  instructor's  criticism  is  destructive.  He  usually 
makes  no  effort  to  supply  a  substitute  for  that  which 
he  would  destroy.  The  preacher  of  the  academic  type 
may  do  little  good;  but  he  is  at  least  proclaiming  a 
positive  philosophy  and  is  not  engaged  in  subverting 
foundations.  A  salary  sufficient  to  protect  against 
want  but  too  slender  to  entail  responsibility,  an  end- 
less supply  of  material  for  academic  speculation  upon 
great  subjects  but  no  sense  of  obligation  to  try  out 
a  theory  before  proclaiming  it,  a  bright  mind  and  a 
ready  tongue  and  consciousness  that  applause  and 
notoriety  wait  upon  sensational  utterance — these  ele- 
ments in  combination  constitute  the  equipment  of  a 
good  many  university  men  to  whom  students  are  en- 
trusted at  a  critical  period  of  their  development.  "The 
Ph.D.  Octopus"  (as  William  James  might  have 
dubbed  the  man  instead  of  the  degree1)  is  not  always 

1  The  Harvard  Monthly,  March,   1903.     See  also  Memories 
and  Studies,  p.  329. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        109 

a  safe  animal  for  the  student  to  meet  in  the  course  of 
his  educational  swim. 

There  are  not  a  few  ministers  of  the  sensational 
sort  who  are  to  be  heard  in  Christian  pulpits  and 
whose  pictures  are  to  be  found  in  daily  newspapers. 
Not  seldom  their  utterances  are  directed  at  commun- 
ity evils  which  ought  to  be  remedied.  Their  pleas  for 
the  poor  and  the  unprivileged  are  eloquent  and  unex- 
ceptionable. Their  attacks  upon  special  privilege  and 
vested  interest  would  not  be  unworthy  of  a  place  in  a 
campaign  speech.  But  through  it  all  the  man  in  the 
crowd  detects  a  note  of  unreality  and  becomes  aware 
that  it  is  a  case  of  vox  et  prceterea  nihil.  Utterances 
of  this  sort  are  unconvincing.  Such  speakers  some- 
how fail  to  conceal  from  the  crowd  what  they  fain 
would  conceal  from  themselves — that  they  are  always 
in  the  foreground  of  their  own  thinking.  Self- 
advertisement  cannot  successfully  masquerade  as 
either  teaching  or  preaching. 

Most  of  the  temptations  that  assail  the  preacher  are 
felt  also  by  the  college  professor.  Intellectual  specu- 
lation untested  by  personal  effort  to  help  the  weak  is 
quite  as  mischievous  as  empty  exhortation  can  pos- 
sibly be.  If  the  preacher  is  criticised  for  not  prevent- 
ing the  war  there  is  some  basis  for  the  retort  that  the 
college  professor  caused  it.  We  often  meet  men  in 
the  crowd  whose  culture  and  privilege  have  sapped 
their  virility.  The  rugged  Christianity  of  our  fore- 
fathers has  in  like  manner  "passed  through  the 
schools,"  losing  much  of  its  compelling  power  in  the 
process  and  gaining  little  that  compensates  for  the 


110  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

loss.  It  is  customary  to  abuse  the  theologian  for  intel- 
lectualizing  religion.  Nobody  really  in  earnest  will 
approve  the  substitution  of  dogma  for  life.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  an  equally  perilous  thing  to  emotion- 
alize religion  by  identifying  it  with  mere  warm- 
hearted sympathy  for  the  unprivileged.  The  teacher 
who  interprets  all  of  life  in  terms  of  brotherhood  is 
responsible  for  leading  the  student  to  forget  God. 
The  danger  is  that  in  times  of  stress  the  tie  of  brother- 
hood will  suffice  to  bind  men  only  to  those  whose 
selfish  interests  are  identical  with  their  own.  The  rest 
of  God's  family  quickly  become  outlaws,  fit  only  to 
be  the  targets  for  diabolical  engines  of  destruction. 

If  neither  public  schools,  private  schools  nor  univer- 
sities are  successfully  inculcating  religious  ideas  into 
the  youth  of  the  nation;  if  the  Sunday  school,  excel- 
lent as  it  is,  is  necessarily  inadequate  to  this  end ;  and 
if  missionary  zeal  is  not  an  efficient  substitute  for  edu- 
cational thoroughness,  the  Christian  preacher  can  no 
longer  afford  to  waste  time  in  laments  but  must  gird 
up  the  loins  of  his  mind  and  address  himself  intelli- 
gently and  vigorously  to  the  cause  of  educational 
reform.  He  must  see  to  it  that  revelation  through 
teaching  is  one  of  the  aims  of  his  own  ministry  and 
he  must  do  some  fearless  and  constructive  thinking  on 
the  subject  of  religion  in  its  relation  to  public  educa- 
tion. 

As  far  as  his  own  development  is  concerned  the 
preacher  will  do  well  to  remember  that  teaching  is  the 
basis  of  all  good  preaching.  It  has  been  said  to  be  the 
hidden  or  revealed  foundation  of  all  inspiration.  But 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        111 

preaching  is  teaching  and  something  more;  for  the 
preacher  should  approach  his  hearers  not  as  intelli- 
gences but  as  men.  Truth  can  never  be  stated  wholly 
in  terms  of  the  intellect,  for  the  mind  is  a  lesser  thing 
than  the  truth  which  it  strives  to  comprehend.  But 
the  teaching  method  should  always  be  at  the 
preacher's  disposal  and  his  presentation  of  truth 
should  be  systematic  and  thorough. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  train  one's  self  to  teach  the 
lesson  that  is  needed,  whether  or  not  it  is  the  one  in 
which  the  teacher  takes  the  greatest  interest.  Espe- 
cially in  the  case  of  the  minister  who  always  preaches 
to  the  same  congregation  it  is  of  great  importance  to 
present  Christian  teaching  in  its  symmetry.  It  is  easy 
to  distort  truth  by  a  failure  to  preserve  just  emphasis 
and  proper  perspective.  I  wish  that  the  observance 
of  the  Christian  year  were  less  exclusively  the  habit 
of  a  few  communions.  The  orderly  sequence  of  fes- 
tivals and  fasts,  of  saints'  days  and  of  seasons  in 
which  different  Christian  truths  are  emphasized  in 
turn  is  a  wholesome  check  upon  individualism  and 
serves  to  remind  the  preacher  that  what  he  shall 
preach  about  is  not  wholly  an  optional  matter  with 
him.  I  am  not  a  great  believer  in  announced  courses 
of  sermons  on  related  topics.  They  are  apt  to  be  as 
dull,  for  example,  as  a  course  of  lectures  on  preaching. 
But  the  preacher  will  do  well  to  map  out  for  his  own 
guidance  the  field  which  it  is  his  duty  to  cover  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  although  his  plan  must  be  kept  flexi- 
ble and  subject  to  modification  at  the  call  of  oppor- 
tunity. 


112  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

If  the  preacher  finds  it  desirable  to  give  a  course  of 
sermons  on  a  selected  theme,  he  should  be  careful  to 
select  for  the  several  discourses  a  substantial  and  not 
a  merely  fanciful  basis  of  relationship.  I  once  heard 
a  series  of  addresses  upon  the  seven  words  from  the 
Cross  in  which  Our  Lord's  utterances  were  made  to 
correspond  to  the  notes  in  the  diatonic  scale,  and  a 
character  appropriate  to  each  note  was  read  into  the 
corresponding  word.  Such  a  treatment  strikes  the 
man  in  the  crowd  as  merely  ingenious.  It  contradicts 
the  fundamental  principle  of  teaching — that  the  thing 
must  be  seen  as  it  is  in  itself  and  must  not  be  forced 
to  fit  the  teacher's  purpose. 

One  of  the  first  duties  of  a  lawyer  in  the  handling 
of  precedents  is  to  distinguish  between  the  precise 
point  upon  which  the  case  cited  was  actually  decided 
and  the  observations  made  by  the  court  in  rendering 
the  decision.  The  obiter  dictum  of  even  a  very  great 
judge  lacks  the  authority  of  his  actual  decision  upon 
the  exact  point  which  was  raised  by  the  pleadings  and 
argued  by  counsel.  The  conscientious  teacher  is  like- 
wise careful  to  discriminate  between  that  which  may 
reasonably  be  deduced  from  a  precedent  and  that 
which  is  merely  suggested  by  it.  I  have  occasionally 
heard  preachers  who  were  less  careful  in  this  particu- 
lar than  they  should  have  been.  A  sound  and  sensible 
admonition  may  lose  much  of  its  weight  if  pronounced 
as  a  necessary  conclusion  from  a  text  which  in  fact  has 
only  a  remote  relation  to  the  subject. 

The  attitude  of  the  teacher  toward  his  hearers  is  not 
that  of  a  man  who  believes  he  can  compel  acceptance 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        113 

of  his  doctrine  but  of  one  who  seeks  to  win  its  accept- 
ance. When  people  have  already  definitely  conceded 
certain  premises,  a  conclusion  legitimately  drawn 
from  them  may  be  forced  home  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  confidence.  But  nowadays  there  are  many 
in  every  congregation  with  whom  the  premise  is 
scarcely  as  much  as  an  hypothesis.  In  such  an  atmos- 
phere dogmatic  utterance  is  usually  futile.  But  while 
for  some  reasons  the  decline  of  authority  is  to  be 
regretted  there  is  also  a  bright  side  to  the  matter. 
When  a  proposition  is  authoritatively  announced  and 
is  for  that  reason  unquestioningly  accepted,  there  is 
a  sense  of  the  word  in  which  it  may  be  said  that  the 
proposition  is  believed.  But  the  value  of  belief  in 
such  a  case  is  far  from  its  maximum,  since  the  believer 
has  never  seriously  contemplated  the  opposite  of  the 
proposition  and  has  never  been  forced  to  choose 
between  the  two  alternatives.  Some  analogy  exists, 
in  the  sphere  of  morals,  to  the  difference  between 
innocence  and  virtue.  The  man  who  has  never  had  to 
strive  for  his  belief  in  God  and  immortality  has  been 
spared  a  terrible  ordeal.  Having  never  ceased  in  this 
respect  to  be  a  child,  he  has  never  known  the  grown 
man's  struggle  to  become  again  a  little  child.  But 
the  character  of  the  man  who  has  made  the  struggle 
and  has  achieved  childlikeness  is  the  noblest  thing  in 
God's  creation.  His  belief  is  to  him  the  most  precious 
thing  in  life  because  he  knows  what  life  is  without  it. 
It  is  at  times  the  privilege  of  the  teacher  to  help  a 
man  in  his  battle  for  belief.  It  is  not  necessary  that 
the  teacher  should  himself  have  had  the  experience 


114  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

through  which  his  brother  is  passing,  but  he  must  at 
least  possess  that  form  of  imagination  which  enables 
him  to  see  the  world  through  his  brother's  eyes. 

A  preacher  with  the  teacher's  instinct,  when  dealing 
with  disputed  points,  will  be  careful  to  state  fairly  the 
different  views  respecting  them.  This  is  not  only  a 
duty  which  he  owes  to  honesty  but  it  is  the  only  effect- 
ive way  in  which  to  teach.  If  a  man  has  genuine  con- 
fidence in  his  solution  of  a  difficulty  he  will  earnestly 
desire  two  things;  first,  that  the  difficulty  itself  be 
faced  and  appreciated  by  his  hearers;  and,  second, 
that  the  precise  difference  between  his  solution  and 
others  be  made  clear.  To  misstate,  either  willfully  or 
from  ignorance,  an  adversary's  position  and  then  to 
demolish  the  position  as  thus  misstated  is  to  win  the 
hollowest  kind  of  a  dialectic  victory  as  well  as  to  lose 
an  educational  opportunity.  The  preacher  should 
also  be  on  his  guard  against  the  common  habit  of 
using  question-begging  terms  and  adjectives  which 
are  intended  to  discredit  the  noun  to  which  they  are 
applied.  There  is  a  swarm  of  words  of  this  sort,  often 
on  the  lips  of  the  religious  controversialist  and  almost 
always  sure  to  obscure  the  issue  and  to  vitiate  the 
reasoning.  The  Roman  Catholic  seeks  to  make  short 
work  of  an  argument  by  styling  it  "a  Protestant  con- 
tention." To  say  of  a  doctrine  or  practice  that  it  is 
"Roman"  is  in  the  minds  of  many  to  condemn  it 
unheard.  To  characterize  a  statement  of  belief  as 
"dogmatic"  closes  many  ears  against  it.  To  affirm 
that  a  view  is  "radical"  or  "socialistic"  is  one  way  of 
leading  people  to  suspect  the  morality  if  not  the 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        115 

sanity  of  the  man  who  holds  it.  It  is  not  easy  to 
determine  whether  an  opinion  suffers  most  from 
being  described  as  "ancient,"  "mediaeval"  or  "mod- 
ern." The  use  of  all  such  devices  to  shut  off  a  fair 
consideration  of  the  question  at  issue  is  obviously 
unworthy  of  the  preacher  and  incompatible  with  the 
teaching  temperament. 

I  have  suggested  elsewhere  in  these  lectures  that 
Christian  doctrines  are  really  solutions  of  difficulties. 
There  is,  of  course,  nothing  novel  in  such  a  sugges- 
tion, yet  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  emphasize  the  point ; 
for  in  many  quarters  doctrines  seem  to  be  thought 
of  as  purely  imaginary  difficulties,  cunningly  devised 
in  order  to  afflict  the  good.  In  the  same  way  a 
great  many  people  conceive  of  a  dogma  as  differing 
from  a  doctrine  only  as  a  club  differs  from  a  scourge. 
The  function  of  the  one  is  to  render  the  victim  insen- 
sible while  the  other  merely  drives  him  to  madness. 
Accordingly  it  has  become  common  among  timid 
preachers  to  avoid  authoritative  teaching  altogether 
and  to  preach  what  are  called  "doctrinal"  sermons 
only  in  an  agony  of  fear  lest  the  few  men  left  in  the 
pews  will  hasten  to  join  the  crowd  outside.  If  by  a 
doctrinal  sermon  is  meant  a  complicated  prescription 
for  an  unknown  disorder,  then  I  trust  that  the  omis- 
sion of  such  discourses  will  become  not  merely  com- 
mon but  universal.  If,  however,  a  doctrinal  sermon 
is  one  in  which  the  preacher  offers  the  man  in  the  pew 
the  Christian  solution  of  a  felt  difficulty,  then  the 
more  of  such  teachings  there  are  the  better.  I  insist 
that  if  men  are  not  interested  in  doctrine  it  is  either 


116  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

because  their  habit  of  life  has  kept  them  from  facing 
inevitable  difficulties  or  because  the  doctrine  is  pre- 
sented in  such  a  way  as  to  have  no  apparent  relation 
to  daily  life.  In  either  event,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the 
doctrine.  In  the  one  case,  the  man's  absorption  in 
material  things  has  been  culpable.  In  the  other,  the 
preacher  is  blameworthy  for  his  lack  of  insight.  It  is 
certainly  within  the  power  of  the  preacher  so  to  con- 
front American  men  with  the  great  facts  of  life  as  to 
arouse  in  them  an  eager  interest  in  the  problems  to 
which  they  give  rise.  The  same  brain  that  is  keenly 
interested  in  a  workman's  compensation  act  can  be 
led  to  ponder  over  all  the  aspects  of  one's  duty  toward 
one's  neighbor.  The  man  that  can  understand  even 
dimly  the  mysteries  of  life  insurance  can  be  made  to 
appreciate  that  the  options  in  his  policy,  numerous  as 
they  are,  do  not  provide  for  all  the  contingencies  of  a 
life  after  death.  Any  man  who  has  experienced 
human  friendship  may  be  made  aware  of  the  possi- 
bility of  a  similar  relation  between  himself  and  God. 
Estrangement  from  a  friend  can  be  used  to  suggest 
the  way  in  which  interrupted  relationship  between  a 
man  and  his  God  spells  nothing  but  sorrow  and  gloom. 
The  honest  admission  of  the  person  at  fault  and  his 
humble  request  to  be  placed  as  far  as  possible  on  the 
old  and  happy  footing  are  but  types  of  Christian 
penitence.  Reconciliations  between  parted  friends 
are  symbols  of  the  joy  of  forgiveness.  The  unselfish 
determination  of  a  man  to  restore  a  relation  inter- 
rupted through  no  fault  of  his  has  in  it  something  that 
is  Godlike.  Whatever  sacrificial  thing  he  does  in  pur- 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        117 

suit  of  this  aim  has  in  it  the  germ  of  atonement.  If 
the  method  pursued  involves  the  laying  aside  of  privi- 
lege and  sharing  the  life  of  the  object  of  his  quest, 
the  man  can  be  made  to  see  that  he  is  but  applying  the 
principle  of  the  Incarnation.  To  realize  the  relation 
between  this  life  and  the  existence  that  preceded  birth 
is  to  lay  ground  for  a  certain  inference  respecting  that 
other  stage  of  being  that  lies  beyond  the  grave. 
Problems  of  relationship,  human  and  divine,  exist 
and  must  be  faced.  The  thing  which  we  call  law 
recognizes  the  problems  of  human  relationship  and 
makes  efforts  at  accommodation  that  are  confessedly 
imperfect  and  temporary.  The  Christian  theory  takes 
account  of  all  the  phases  of  life  and  proposes  for  all 
difficulties  solutions  that  are  final  and  satisfying. 

I  am  not  at  the  moment  speaking  of  the  validity  of 
the  Christian  theory.  My  present  purpose  is  merely 
to  point  out  that  Christianity  is  concerned  with  diffi- 
culties which  American  men  are  capable  of  facing  and 
that  the  preacher  has  it  in  his  power  to  arouse  an 
interest  that  is  really  intense  if  he  sets  himself  to 
interpret  the  experiences  of  daily  life  and  if  his 
method  of  treatment  is  direct  and  simple. 

As  to  the  validity  of  the  Christian  theory  there  is 
not  much  that  it  is  appropriate  to  say  in  a  course  of 
lectures  on  preaching.  The  validity  of  the  message  is 
presupposed.  Perhaps,  however,  as  a  voice  from  the 
crowd,  I  may  be  permitted  to  record  my  own  belief 
in  the  reasonableness  of  the  Christian  solution  of  life's 
problems  and  my  own  conviction  that  difficulties  of 
acceptance  are  more  often  moral  than  intellectual. 


118  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Indeed,  there  is  almost  an  element  of  humor  in  the 
intellectual  fastidiousness  of  some  of  my  friends  when 
it  comes  to  the  acceptance  of  religious  teaching.  I 
may  know  their  capacity  to  accept  and  hold  the  most 
extraordinary  views  on  other  important  subjects, 
based  on  reasoning  which  seems  to  me  demonstrably 
fallacious  and  upon  data  which  I  deem  wholly  inade- 
quate. And  yet  when  they  are  face  to  face  with  the 
truths  of  the  ages  they  turn  away  from  them  with  the 
air  of  men  whose  mental  food  must  always  be  cooked 
to  a  turn  if  they  would  avoid  digestive  disturbance. 
Like  many  other  people  of  ordinary  intelligence  I 
have  had  my  problems  of  thought  to  face.  I  have  felt 
with  respect  to  various  matters  the  inclination  to  sub- 
stitute agnosticism  for  belief.  At  crises  in  my  reli- 
gious life,  however,  I  have  been  fortunate  enough  to 
be  aware  that  it  was  my  will  that  was  on  trial  rather 
than  what  I  am  pleased  to  call  my  intellect.  I  have 
never  subsequently  regretted  any  struggle  that  it  may 
have  cost  me  to  exert  at  such  times  the  will  to  believe. 
In  dealing  with  the  Christian  teachings  the  teacher 
will  always  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the  truth 
itself  and  changing  human  explanations  of  the  how 
and  the  why.  It  has  often  seemed  to  me,  for  example, 
that  difficulties  about  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
were  really  occasioned  not  by  the  teaching  itself  but 
by  the  various  imperfect  and  often  repulsive  theories 
respecting  it  which  have  from  time  to  time  been  put 
forth  with  a  semblance  of  authority.  The  stars  are 
facts  and  they  are  the  handiwork  of  God.  Astronomy 
is  an  amplified  hypothesis  and  it  is  the  work  of  man. 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        119 

Ptolemy  may  give  way  to  Copernicus  and  men's 
minds  may  be  correspondingly  disturbed;  but  all  the 
while  the  stars  keep  on  shining. 

A  teacher  is  usually  fortunate  in  having  his  pupils 
assorted  for  him  so  that  at  any  given  moment  he  is 
addressing  those  of  substantially  the  same  degree  of 
attainment.  The  preacher,  on  the  other  hand,  must 
often  speak  to  groups  composed  of  people  of  every 
stage  of  spiritual  capacity  and  educational  progress. 
I  have  often  wished  that  more  frank  recognition  were 
given  by  preachers  to  this  fact.  A  very  few  words 
would  usually  suffice  to  explain  the  relation  of  the 
subject  of  the  sermon  to  the  rest  of  the  field  of  spirit- 
ual experience  and  Christian  truth.  A  man  in  the 
crowd  might  not  indeed  be  enabled  by  such  an  expla- 
nation to  grasp  the  preacher's  thought,  but  he  would 
at  least  recognize  the  propriety  of  explicitly  assuming 
certain  things  in  order  to  discuss  others.  More  im- 
portant still  is  the  consequence  that  a  brief  clear  state- 
ment of  this  sort  would  be  apt  to  lead  the  man  to 
blame  himself  and  not  the  preacher  or  the  subject  for 
his  failure  to  profit  much  by  the  sermon. 

A  preacher  with  the  teaching  instinct  will  do  useful 
service  if  he  dispels  the  impression  of  the  crowd  that 
the  Church  exists  only  for  the  rich  in  faith.  A  doc- 
trine which  one  man  is  able  to  accept  because  of  an 
authoritative  utterance  may  be  submitted  to  another 
man  as  an  hypothesis  to  be  tested  experimentally.  In 
the  case  of  still  another  all  teaching  may  be  postponed 
till  Christian  sympathy  and  service  have  awakened  in 
him  a  curiosity  to  learn  their  motive  power.  Our 


120  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Lord's  invitation  to  humanity  is  conditioned  not  upon 
spiritual  attainment  but  upon  the  hunger  of  the  soul. 
"Come  unto  me,"  he  says,  "all  ye  that  travail  and 
are  heavy  laden."  There  are,  I  believe,  social  organi- 
zations from  which  a  man  is  excluded  if  he  allows  it 
to  be  known  that  he  would  like  to  join.  It  is  not  so 
with  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  an  out- 
standing invitation  to  every  human  creature.  Any 
man  is  welcome  who  without  lifting  up  so  much  as 
his  eyes  to  heaven  is  able  to  utter  the  ejaculation  of 
the  publican,  "God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner." 

The  really  difficult  problem  respecting  the  scope 
of  the  church  is  that  which  concerns  not  faith  but 
democracy.  Aloofness  from  the  life  of  the  crowd  is 
a  charge  brought  against  different  Christian  com- 
munions with  varying  degrees  of  justice.  The 
impression  is  general  that  religion  is  the  luxury  of 
the  rich.  The  very  poor  man  is  supposed  to  have 
no  time  for  Christ  and  at  least  some  branches  of 
Christ's  Church  are  supposed  to  have  no  time  for 
him.  That  this  is  not  true  in  theory  all  will  concede. 
That  the  poorest  man  in  the  world  may  find  himself 
rich  in  the  friendship  of  Our  Lord  is  a  fact  that  is 
attested  by  the  experience  of  millions.  That  many 
branches  of  the  Christian  Church  cannot  ignore  the 
charge  laid  against  them  I  verily  believe.  The  man 
in  the  pulpit  may  do  much  to  hasten  a  revival  of  the 
spirit  of  democracy  within  the  church  by  reiterating 
Our  Lord's  plain  teachings  upon  this  subject.  But 
after  all  it  rests  with  the  man  in  the  pew  to  elimi- 
nate snobbishness  from  congregational  life  and  to 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        121 

make  democracy  once  more  a  test  of  discipleship.  I 
suspect  that  sooner  or  later  the  man  inside  the  church 
will  discover  that  at  least  in  the  case  of  large  city 
congregations  the  pew  system  is  a  factor  in  making 
the  crowd  outside  the  church  so  large.  I  confess  that 
I  have  for  years  chafed  under  a  system  of  pews  pri- 
vately owned.  Under  such  a  system  I  do  not  see 
how  Christian  fellowship  can  ever  be  more  than  a 
name.  At  times  it  has  seemed  to  me  as  if  the  chang- 
ing of  money  and  the  sale  of  doves  were  not  the  only 
ways  in  which  a  House  of  Prayer  might  be  dese- 
crated. It  would  be  a  glorious  thing  if  there  could 
be  an  end  of  the  distinction  between  the  man  in  the 
pew  and  the  man  in  the  crowd. 

A  man  with  the  spirit  of  the  true  teacher  is 
always  eager  to  make  teachers  out  of  his  disciples. 
The  process  of  revealing  God  through  teaching  may 
be  made  to  affect  many  souls  if  the  preacher's  con- 
gregation becomes  itself  an  educational  centre.  The 
minister  will  be  happy  if  he  can  gather  some  men 
about  him,  be  they  few  or  many,  with  a  view  to  study 
or  discussion.  He  should  let  it  be  known  that  his 
primary  purpose  is  his  own  self-development ;  and 
this  should  be  not  merely  his  ostensible  but  his  real 
aim.  A  preacher  can  subject  himself  to  no  more 
searching  test  than  to  meet  a  small  group  of  men  at 
close  range.  If  he  finds  himself  able  to  gain  their 
confidence  and  to  arouse  and  retain  their  interest  in 
himself  and  his  work  he  need  feel  no  anxiety  respect- 
ing his  capacity  to  be  of  use  in  the  pulpit.  Many 
sermons  will  have  their  origin  in  these  informal  talks 


122  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

with  men.  Some  projected  sermons  will  be  aban- 
doned altogether.  Plans  for  others  will  be  changed. 
Opinions  will  be  modified  and  methods  of  presenta- 
tion altered.  Out  of  a  group  of  this  sort  let  various 
teaching  activities  develop  naturally.  Those  things 
should  be  undertaken  for  which  really  suitable 
material  can  be  found.  It  is  a  grave  mistake  to  start 
educational  enterprises  merely  because  such  are 
needed  and  then  to  entrust  them  to  incapables.  I 
believe  it  to  be  an  error  in  judgment  to  call  for  vol- 
unteers to  teach  in  Sunday  school  and  so  to  present 
the  matter  as  to  create  the  impression  that  the  vol- 
unteer is  doing  the  church  a  favor.  The  minister 
should,  if  necessary,  develop  a  normal  class  out  of 
his  group  of  conferees  and  should  insist  upon  it  that 
nobody  be  permitted  to  serve  as  a  teacher  who  is  not 
qualified  for  moral  leadership  or  fails  to  attain  to  a 
reasonable  standard  of  pedagogical  proficiency.  A 
Sunday  school  is  not  an  end  in  itself  but  merely  a 
means  to  an  end;  and  nothing  so  surely  defeats  its 
aims  as  teachers  or  superintendents  who  are  in  any 
respect  unfit. 

I  suppose  it  never  would  have  occurred  to  any- 
body but  Our  Lord  that  the  world's  greatest  teachers 
could  be  developed  from  the  material  which  He  in 
fact  used  for  that  purpose.  If  I  were  asked  to  indi- 
cate the  most  remarkable  achievement  of  Our  Lord's 
ministry  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  His  success  in 
teacher-training  would  be  my  reply.  When  upon  the 
Cross  He  exclaimed,  "It  is  finished,"  His  confidence 
must  have  rested  in  His  knowledge  that  the  Gospel 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        123 

was  left  in  safe  hands.  Of  nothing  that  I  know  of 
except  the  teaching  of  God's  truth  can  it  be  said  that 
the  task  is  completely  finished  when  it  is  only  well 
begun. 

Following  in  Our  Lord's  footsteps,  let  not  the 
minister,  in  the  selection  of  disciples,  lay  an  over- 
emphasis upon  book  learning.  Let  him  not  lament 
the  poverty  of  his  material.  Let  him  rather  strive  to 
reveal  God  to  such  men  as  are  at  hand.  Let  his  con- 
stant endeavor  be  to  bring  to  bear  upon  them  the  full 
power  of  a  Christlike  life,  until  they  in  their  turn 
shall  become  witnesses  to  the  fact  of  revelation.  A 
man  may  know  a  deal  of  pedagogy  and  his  equip- 
ment for  instruction  may  be  exceptional,  but  his 
teaching  will  never  be  a  means  of  revelation  unless 
he  be  a  witness  as  well  as  a  teacher.  And  it  is  to 
Christ  as  a  living  Person  that  he  must  bear  his  wit- 
ness. The  Christ  that  is  known  by  intimate  personal 
experience  is  the  source  of  a  power  that  can  move 
mountains.  The  intellectualized  Christ  is  cold  as 
marble  and  as  lifeless  as  a  fossil.  The  danger  against 
which  the  teacher  must  always  guard  himself  is  the 
tendency  to  overestimate  the  function  and  impor- 
tance of  the  intellect.  It  is  a  whole  man  that  the 
Master  wants  for  a  disciple,  not  an  intellectual  mon- 
ster. A  healthy  body,  a  vigorous  mind,  wholesome 
emotions  and  a  sixth  sense — these  are  the  signs  that 
the  whole  of  a  man  is  alive.  "I  am  come,"  said  the 
Master,  "that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly." 


124  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

In  attempting  to  indicate  the  ways  in  which  the 
preacher  may  discharge  his  duty  as  a  Christian  edu- 
cator, I  have  now  made  some  random  suggestions 
as  to  what  he  may  do  from  his  own  pulpit  and  among 
his  own  people.  It  remains  to  consider  what  his 
contribution  should  be  to  the  discussion  of  popular 
education.  At  the  beginning  of  my  lecture  I  tried 
to  describe  the  educational  situation  as  it  would 
appear  to  a  Christian  if  he  were  really  in  earnest. 
The  situation  is  so  unsatisfactory  that  it  cannot  be 
regarded  as  permanent.  Sooner  or  later  there  will 
be  agitation  for  a  change.  It  behooves  us  to  con- 
sider what  manner  of  change  we  shall  be  prepared 
to  approve. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  the  religious 
group  which  has  perceived  most  clearly  the  dangers 
of  a  secularized  education.  Not  content  with  pro- 
test and  lamentation,  these  brethren  of  ours  have 
undertaken  protective  measures  for  themselves  and 
their  children.  As  is  well  known,  they  have  estab- 
lished a  graded  school  system  of  their  own  through- 
out the  country.  I  have  heard  it  estimated  that  in 
these  schools  they  are  giving  instruction  to  about 
1,300,000  children.  In  the  meantime  they  are  pay- 
ing to  the  several  states  their  full  share  of  the  taxes 
for  the  maintenance  of  public  schools.  In  other 
words,  the  Roman  Catholic  community  is  simulta- 
neously supporting  two  systems  of  public  education. 
I  know  next  to  nothing  about  their  financial 
resources,  but  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  before  long 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        125 

the  time  will  come  when  such  a  burden  can  no  longer 
be  carried.  When  that  time  arrives  the  question  will 
be  whether  their  insistence  upon  popular  religious 
education  will  be  given  up  or  whether  a  determined 
political  effort  will  be  made  to  reform  our  public 
school  system.  It  requires  little  prophetic  vision  to 
foresee  that  it  is  the  latter  alternative  that  will  be 
adopted. 

Nor  is  it  difficult  to  foresee  the  nature  of  the  reform 
that  will  be  advocated.  This  is  the  way  in  which  the 
matter  is  put  by  the  author  of  that  suggestive  book 
Two  and  Two  Make  Four:2 

We  must  regain  for  God  the  children  of  the  nation.  If 
we  were  all  of  one  creed,  it  might  be  done  through  our  pres- 
ent public  school  system.  But  we  are  of  many  creeds,  so 
that  the  only  practicable  plan,  and  the  only  just  plan,  is  to 
let  each  creed  teach  its  own,  and  let  the  state  pay,  out  of 
the  taxes  collected  from  all,  a  just  compensation  to  such 
educational  agency,  secular  or  religious,  for  the  educational 
work  it  shall  perform. 

In  this  way  will  we  best  meet  this  new  peril;  in  this  way 
will  we  best  destroy,  on  the  one  hand,  the  privilege  that 
generates  class  hatred,  and,  on  the  other,  the  false  phil- 
osophy that  would  transmute  that  hatred  into  Socialism. 

It  is  an  evil  thing  we  have  to  conquer.  If  it  were  only 
the  Intellectuals,  we  might  let  them  babble  away  in  their 
own  little  insane  asylums,  while  the  rest  of  us  go  on  with 
the  work  of  the  world.  But  here  is  this  vast  army  suffering 
from  real  social  injustice,  and  here  are  those  Intellectuals 

2  Bird  S.  Coler:  Two  and  Two  Make  Four,  p.  244;  N.  Y. 
Frank  D.  Beattys  &  Co.,  1914. 


126  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

telling  this  army  to  overturn  the  government,  break  up  and 
throw  away  the  Constitution,  close  the  churches,  abandon 
their  families,  and  they  shall  have  bread  without  sweating 
for  it. 

It  is  not  a  minute  too  soon  to  do  some  definite 
thinking  about  so  important  a  proposition.  When 
it  is  formally  propounded  there  will  be  behind  it  a 
power  that  must  be  reckoned  with.  Each  Christian 
preacher  must  be  ready  either  to  support  the  propo- 
sition or  definitely  to  oppose  it  or  to  propose  some 
better  way. 

If  a  voice  from  the  crowd  may  venture  a  sugges- 
tion it  is  this — that  the  first  step  toward  a  right 
decision  is  to  lay  aside  all  partisan  prejudice  and  to 
consider  the  proposition  on  its  merits.  This,  unhap- 
pily, is  a  most  difficult  thing  to  do.  We  Christians 
of  the  several  communions  have  for  so  long  distrusted 
one  another  that  we  indulge  a  presumption  against 
any  plan  put  forward  by  a  group  other  than  our 
own.  This  is  especially  true  as  between  groups  of 
the  Roman  allegiance  on  the  one  hand  and  all 
remaining  groups  on  the  other.  The  absolute  sever- 
ance of  church  from  state  has  with  many  groups  of 
Christians  become  a  postulate  of  clear  thinking. 
Anything  which  even  remotely  threatens  the  integ- 
rity of  the  principle  is  said  to  violate  a  grand  old 
Puritan  conception;  and  he  is  indeed  a  courageous 
man  who  in  New  England  ventures  to  suggest  that 
a  conception  though  Puritan  may  not  be  perfect. 
We  properly  shrink  from  all  contact  between  reli- 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        127 

gion  and  politics.  It  is  a  matter  of  simple  fact  that 
the  Roman  Church  is  in  a  position  to  exert  power- 
ful political  influence  whenever  it  cares  to  do  so.  It 
is  natural  enough  that  a  man  should  be  suspicious 
of  such  influence  if  his  own  communion  does  not  in 
fact  possess  it.  Everybody  feels  virtuous  about  the 
sins  to  which  he  is  not  tempted.  If,  however,  one 
could  imagine  a  political  measure  acceptable  to  all 
Christian  people  of  whatever  communion,  I  suspect 
that  our  attitude  toward  political  action  for  religious 
ends  would  be  somewhat  modified.  When  the  ques- 
tion of  compulsory  religious  education  for  the  chil- 
dren of  religious  people  becomes  a  live  political  issue 
it  will  be  deplorable  if  all  Christian  citizens  do  not 
feel  able  to  range  themselves  on  the  same  side. 

Considering  the  proposition  on  its  merits  we  can 
readily  see  in  it  many  elements  of  advantage.  While 
the  state,  if  the  proposition  were  adopted,  would  not 
be  concerning  itself  directly  with  religion,  the  prin- 
ciple that  education  should  have  a  religious  basis 
would  be  receiving  definite  public  recognition.  The 
child  would  no  longer  be  distracted  by  the  rival 
claims  of  secular  and  religious  education.  To  know 
God  would  be  recognized  as  the  highest  use  of 
human  faculties  and  education  would  be  perceived 
to  consist  in  the  development  of  all  our  powers  to 
this  great  end.  For  ethical  codes  without  compelling 
power,  there  would  be  substituted  moral  teaching 
with  a  religious  sanction.  Definite  and  hopeful 
progress  would  be  made  in  combating  the  vicious 
and  insidious  theory  that  social  rearrangements  are 


128  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

the  summum  bonum  of  human  life.  For  a  little  world 
known  only  through  the  senses  and  tossed  hither  and 
thither  by  blind  force  would  be  substituted  a  great, 
God-governed  universe,  the  spiritual  Kingdom  of 
the  King  of  Kings. 

The  dangers  which  such  a  proposition  involves  are 
equally  obvious.  The  question  is  on  which  side  lies 
the  balance  of  advantage.  The  conceivable  risks  are 
threefold:  to  the  church,  to  the  state  and  to  educa- 
tion. Some  will  fear  that  the  freedom  of  the  church 
would  be  jeopardized  and  the  initiative  of  its  people 
undermined  if  it  were  to  become  a  beneficiary  of 
taxation.  Others  will  perceive  a  danger  to  the  state 
in  the  compulsory  legislative  consideration  of  reli- 
gious interests.  Still  others  will  doubt  the  possibility 
of  maintaining  a  high  educational  standard  and  will 
point  to  the  resulting  emphasis  on  religious  division 
if  a  multitude  of  school  systems  are  maintained  by 
different  religious  groups. 

Great  truth  is  enshrined  in  the  maxim  "a  free 
church  in  a  free  state."  Nothing  must  be  done  to 
violate  it.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  church  the 
question  is  whether  the  receipt  from  the  state  of  a 
grant  equal  to  its  regulated  educational  expenditure 
would  involve  a  curtailment  of  the  church's  free- 
dom. Any  sound  administrative  plan  would  have  as 
one  of  its  features  the  existence  of  a  non-partisan 
state  commission  charged  with  the  duty  of  enforcing 
a  uniformly  high  standard  of  educational  attainment. 
To  this  standard  the  work  of  each  religious  system 
would  have  to  conform  or  lose  its  grant.  To  this 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        129 

extent  the  teaching  done  by  the  church  would  be  sub- 
ject to  state  supervision.  But  such  a  degree  of  state 
control  is  reasonable  and  should  be  welcomed.  An 
educational  system  which  aims  to  interpret  the  world 
and  life  in  terms  of  God  should  be  able  to  stand  any 
scholastic  or  pedagogical  test  to  which  it  can  be  sub- 
jected. If  this  were  not  so  the  result  would  indicate 
that  religion  is  a  delusion  and  God  a  myth. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  state  the  question  is 
whether  the  supervision  of  religious  education  and 
the  appropriation  of  sums  equal  to  educational  dis- 
bursements in  fact  contain  a  germ  of  menace  to  free 
institutions.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  the  kind  of 
inquiry  which  it  is  hardest  to  answer  without  preju- 
dice. There  is  scarcely  any  limit  to  the  evils  which 
imagination  can  conjure  when  a  new  and  untried  plan 
is  under  consideration.  There  are,  moreover,  some  les- 
sons of  history  which  give  imagination  a  substantial 
point  of  departure.  For  myself  I  incline  to  the  view 
that  most  of  the  evils  which  have  made  us  timid  have 
in  the  past  resulted  from  clerical  control  of  state 
education  and  not  from  the  mere  fact  that  the  state 
and  the  church  have  formed  an  educational  partner- 
ship. In  other  words,  I  seem  to  perceive  a  possible 
solution  of  the  problem  along  the  lines  of  lay  control 
of  the  educational  system  in  each  religious  group. 
At  present  the  evil  of  our  educational  system  is  the 
neglect  of  religion  as  the  greatest  force  in  life.  If 
the  system  were  to  pass  under  clerical  control  there 
would  be  danger,  both  to  church  and  state,  that  reli- 
gion would  in  time  be  exploited  in  the  interest  of 


130  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

ecclesiastical  organizations.  Under  the  control  of 
representative  laymen  of  their  several  groups,  full 
scope  would  in  every  case  be  given  to  religious  teach- 
ing, while  the  laymen's  contact  with  secular  life 
would  tend  to  preserve  a  balance  of  interests  which 
otherwise  might  be  threatened. 

As  to  the  objection  of  emphasis  on  religious  divi- 
sions, it  is  quite  possible  that  the  plan  under  review 
would  in  the  end  work  toward  unity.  It  is  quite  cer- 
tain that  there  would  be  fewer  educational  establish- 
ments than  there  are  religious  groups.  Combination 
for  educational  purposes  would  be  a  natural  ten- 
dency. There  would  probably  be  a  system  of 
Hebrew  schools.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
would  likewise  maintain  its  system.  Some  of  the 
other  Christian  communions  would  each  maintain  its 
own.  For  the  residuum  of  the  children  of  the  nation 
a  system  substantially  like  the  present  would  be  sup- 
ported by  the  state.  If,  as  many  of  our  fellow  citi- 
zens profess  to  believe,  religion  is  a  waning  force,  the 
religious  educational  systems  would  in  time  dwindle 
away  and  Christians  would  have  had  their  chance  and 
would  have  proved  unequal  to  it.  Education  with- 
out God  would  have  been  vindicated  as  the  normal 
and  permanent  method  of  making  men.  If,  however, 
religion  should  prove  a  waxing  force  in  human  life 
the  religious  educational  systems  would  tend  not 
merely  to  endure  but  to  coalesce  and  grow,  and  it 
would  again  be  demonstrated  that  religion  when  put 
out  at  the  door  soon  comes  back  through  the  window. 

You  will  perceive  that  I  am  not  ambitiously  trying 


REVELATION  THROUGH  TEACHING        131 

to  solve  a  great  problem  for  the  Christian  com- 
munity. I  am  merely  doing  my  little  to  stimulate 
Christian  thinking  and  to  appeal  for  definite  and 
calm  consideration  of  a  pressing  problem.  Of  the 
evils  of  our  present  godless  system  of  education  I 
seem  to  be  keenly  sensible.  I  do  not  think  I  am 
unaware  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  constructive 
reform.  I  confess  myself  wholly  without  suspicion 
respecting  the  motives  and  aims  of  our  Roman 
Catholic  brethren.  If  I  am  alive  when  they  pro- 
pound a  remedy  for  existing  mischiefs  I  shall  make 
an  earnest  effort  to  place  myself  in  agreement  with 
their  proposal.  Unless  some  better  alternative  can 
be  suggested,  I  suspect  that  in  this  effort  I  shall  suc- 
ceed, because  I  find  it  hard  to  imagine  that  the  evils 
we  know  not  of  can  exceed  in  magnitude  and  variety 
the  evils  of  which  we  are  having  daily  and  painful 
experience. 

The  preacher  should  never  for  a  moment  forget 
that  teaching  is  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  the  agen- 
cies of  revelation.  God's  characteristics  and  work- 
ings can  best  be  revealed  through  the  incidents  and 
lessons  of  daily  life.  This  was  Our  Lord's  way. 
Even  when  a  question  was  not  asked  in  good  faith 
He  made  it  an  occasion  for  presenting  truth.  Even 
when  the  subject-matter  of  the  inquiry  was  govern- 
ment or  finance  His  answer  always  dealt  with  the 
Godward  aspect  of  the  matter  as  well  as  with  the 
manward. 

"Teacher,"  the  Herodians  said  to  Him  on  one  occa- 
sion, "we  know  that  you  are  an  honest  man  and  that 


132  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

you  teach  the  Way  of  God  honestly  and  are  not 
afraid  of  anyone;  for  you  pay  no  regard  to  a  man's 
position.  Tell  us,  then,  what  you  think.  Are  we 
right  in  paying  taxes  to  the  Emperor  or  not  ?"  When 
at  His  direction  they  showed  Him  a  florin,  He  asked, 
"Whose  head  and  title  are  these?"  "The  Emper- 
or's," they  answered:  on  which  He  said  to  them, 
"Then  pay  to  the  Emperor  what  belongs  to  the 
Emperor  and  to  God  what  belongs  to  God."3 

Men  and  brethren,  it  may  be  for  us  a  perilous 
thing  if  with  this  injunction  ringing  in  our  ears  we 
continue  longer  to  render  to  the  Prince  of  this  World 
the  educational  tribute  that  is  due  to  the  King  of 
Kings. 

3  St.  Matthew,  xxii.,  16  et  seq.     (20th  Cent.  N.  T.) 


V 

THE  VISION  OF  UNITY 

"Behold  how  Christians  love  one  another!"  Such 
was  the  exclamation  wrung  from  hostile  critics  of 
the  social  life  of  the  primitive  Church.1  As  a  lad  I 
was  given  to  understand  that  this  love  for  the 
brotherhood  on  the  part  of  each  disciple  had  con- 
tinued to  the  present  time  to  be  a  characteristic  of 
Christian  life.  It  was  not  long  before  I  realized  that 
while  this  is  true  in  theory  it  is  far  from  true  in  fact. 
To-day  a  superficial  observer  might  even  be  inclined 
to  assert  that  among  Christians  of  different  groups 
love  had  been  replaced  by  hate.  He  would  be  nearer 
the  truth  were  he  to  exclaim,  "Behold  how  these 
Christians  misunderstand  one  another."  It  is 
because  nothing  worse  than  misapprehension  lies  at 
the  root  of  our  unchristian  divisions  that  the  vision 
of  unity  is  more  than  a  dream. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  for  the  sceptic  to  find  in  the 
fact  of  a  divided  Christendom  ample  material  for 
taunt  and  gibe.  We  are  all  familiar  with  contemp- 
tuous references  to  our  endless  disputes  over  doc- 
trine. It  seems  to  be  implied  that  a  doctrinal  differ- 
ence is  a  particularly  discreditable  form  of  disagree- 
ment. When,  however,  we  reflect  that  doctrines  are 

1  Tertullianus :  Apologeticus,  c.  39. 


134  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

merely  teachings  and  that  the  church  exists  to  teach, 
we  perceive  that  if  there  are  to  be  any  disagreements 
at  all  between  Christians  it  is  not  unnatural  that  they 
should  be  doctrinal  in  character.  When  educators 
differ  it  is  apt  to  be  in  regard  to  education.  Now  I 
doubt  whether  any  man  living  regrets  more  than  I 
do  the  separation  of  disciple  from  disciple.  I  am 
wholly  dissatisfied  with  existing  conditions.  I  hope 
that  I  am  striving  with  all  my  might  to  catch  the 
vision  of  unity.  But  I  resent  the  implication  of 
moral  turpitude  in  the  criticisms  of  those  who  say 
that  they  must  stand  aloof  from  Christianity  because 
Christians  are  in  disagreement.  It  does  not  seem  to 
be  thought  a  discreditable  thing  for  physicians  and 
men  of  science  to  entertain  divergent  opinions  even 
upon  fundamental  matters,  and  to  express  their 
opinions  of  one  another  in  terms  not  always  gentle 
and  not  infrequently  violent.  Lawyers  and  laymen 
alike  tolerate  conflicts  of  opinion  respecting  legal 
rights  and  remedies  to  a  degree  which  should  occa- 
sion surprise  even  were  jurisprudence  far  less  impor- 
tant than  it  is.  Every  intelligent  man  is,  however, 
optimistic  respecting  the  future  of  science  and  the 
possibility  of  something  like  uniformity  in  law.  I 
feel  confident  that  a  similar  optimism  is  justifiable 
in  regard  to  Christian  unity. 

The  most  unpromising  surface  upon  which  to  sow 
the  seed  of  the  Gospel  is  the  soul  of  the  self-satisfied 
man.  Unity  will  certainly  never  come  till  Chris- 
tians have  become  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  con- 
ditions as  they  are.  I  do  not  find  that  any  such 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  135 

widespread  dissatisfaction  exists  as  yet.  There  are 
criticisms  of  the  church  in  plenty.  There  are  fre- 
quent if  somewhat  half-hearted  laments  over  our 
"unhappy  divisions."  There  are  occasional  proposi- 
tions to  effect  interdenominational  consolidations  in 
order  to  cut  down  the  "overhead"  and  eliminate 
competition.2  Some  people  even  pray  a  little  over 
the  situation,  often  with  the  air  of  men  who  are  con- 
scious that  they  are  asking  the  impossible.  Most 
people  who  want  unity  want  it  only  upon  condition 
that  they  can  get  it  free.  There  is  little,  very  little, 
of  the  craving  for  unity  which  recognizes  that  so 
great  a  need  cannot  be  satisfied  except  at  the  cost  of 
almost  unlimited  sacrifice. 

My  observation  leads  me  to  believe  that  Christian 
women  are,  as  a  class,  little  interested  in  the  prob- 
lem of  unity.  They  are  by  temperament  and  train- 
ing intensely  loyal;  and  often  a  woman's  loyalty  to 
her  own  communion  expresses  itself  in  genuine  dis- 
trust of  every  other.  If  the  body  of  the  disciples  was 
composed  exclusively  of  the  devout  women  of  Christ- 
endom the  vision  of  unity  would  be  less  radiant  than 
it  is. 

1  doubt   whether   the   hope    of   unity,    humanly 
speaking,  can  properly  be  conceived  to  rest  with  the 
clergy.     Individual  ministers  there  are,  thank  God, 
whose  eyes  have  seen  the  vision.     Some  of  these  are 

2  Stephen  Leacock's  Arcadian  Adventures  with  the  Idle  Rich 
exaggerates    only    slightly    the    commercialism    which    actuates 
many  unity  propositions.    See  Chapter  VI.  on  the  Rival  Churches 
of  St.  Asaph  and  St.  Osoph. 


136  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

veritable  prophets  of  unity — as  I  would  that  every 
preacher  were.  But  he  is  a  rare  clergyman  who  is 
not  prepared  to  stand  up  for  the  distinctive  tenets  of 
his  communion  as  an  adequate  embodiment  of  all 
truth.  If  my  conception  of  unity  is  the  ultimate 
absorption  of  all  communions  by  my  own,  I  am  likely 
to  indulge  the  comfortable  belief  that  I  have  no  duty 
to  perform  in  the  premises  except  to  wait  for  the 
approaching  day  when  all  mankind  will  come  to  my 
door  hat  in  hand  and  ask  to  be  admitted  upon  my 
own  terms. 

It  is,  I  suppose,  natural  enough  that  the  faithful 
pastor  should  give  little  thought  to  so  large  a  ques- 
tion as  unity.  He  knows  that  the  Master  has  other 
sheep;  but,  after  all,  the  business  of  each  pastor  is 
to  feed  the  particular  flock  entrusted  to  him.  Their 
care  engrosses  all  his  time  and  attention.  If  sheep 
from  other  folds  are  to  be  brought,  it  is  the  Master 
Himself  who  somehow  will  have  to  bring  them.  If 
a  minister  from  day  to  day  sees  nobody  but  his  own 
people  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  the  divisions  of 
Christendom  should  seem  like  matters  of  remote 
concern.  As  a  practical  matter,  his  own  congrega- 
tion demands  all  his  energy.  As  far  as  his  reading 
and  contacts  are  concerned,  his  own  communion 
seems  coterminous  with  the  Christian  world.  Occa- 
sionally I  have  experiences  which  make  it  easy  for 
me  to  see  the  situation  through  the  eyes  of  a  local 
pastor.  When  I  attend  conventions  composed  of 
delegates  from  every  part  of  my  own  communion  I 
am  impressed  with  the  size  and  importance  of  the 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  137 

body  and  with  the  epoch-making  nature  of  the  matter 
under  discussion.  The  question  whether  or  not  the 
House  of  Bishops  will  concur  with  the  House  of 
Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  in  the  enactment  of  some 
canon  seems  for  the  time  being  vastly  more  impor- 
tant than  any  other  question  in  life.  The  ladies  in 
the  gallery  who  have  followed  the  debates  with  flut- 
tering interest  represent  temporarily  a  waiting 
world.  If  the  view  which  I  advocate  happens  to 
prevail  I  am  conscious  of  the  deep  satisfaction  of  a 
crusader  who  has  captured  one  more  stronghold  for 
the  faith.  After  two  or  three  weeks  spent  in  this 
atmosphere  I  go  back  to  my  own  city  and  find  that 
only  about  one  person  in  fifty  knows  that  the  con- 
vention has  been  in  session  and  when  I  reach  my 
office  I  become  aware  that  my  clients  regard  my 
absence  on  so  trivial  an  errand  as  having  caused  an 
entirely  unjustifiable  interference  with  the  transac- 
tion of  their  business.  By  such  experiences  I  am 
enabled  to  guard  myself  in  some  measure  against  the 
provincialism  to  which  the  pastor  almost  inevitably 
falls  a  prey.  The  danger  in  his  case  is  that  he  will 
create  for  himself  an  unreal  world  peopled  entirely 
by  those  who  are  in  substantial  accord  with  his  way 
of  thinking.  The  man  in  the  pulpit  is  apt,  under 
such  conditions,  to  gauge  the  growth  of  his  work  by 
the  seating  capacity  of  his  little  church  and  not  by 
contrasting  it  with  the  magnitude  of  the  crowd  out- 
side the  doors. 

Another  type  of  minister  who  makes  for  himself 
an  unreal  world  is  the  man  who  assumes  for  his 


138  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

office  a  power  so  great  that  he  can  afford  to  be  indif- 
ferent to  the  immediate  results  of  his  life  and  mes- 
sage. In  some  way  difficult  to  analyze  he  has 
convinced  himself  that  they  that  be  for  him  are  far 
more  than  they  that  be  against  him.  Sunday  after 
Sunday  he  proclaims  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints  and  is  entirely  content  to  explain  its  non- 
acceptance  by  assuming  that,  through  no  fault  of  his, 
the  saints  have  all  been  replaced  by  sinners.  His 
function  is  merely  to  go  on  proclaiming;  and  he  is 
assured  that  in  the  end  the  man  in  the  pew  must 
either  capitulate  or  be  damned.  It  never  occurs  to 
him  that  a  claim  of  authority  cannot  long  be  made 
good  unless  results  are  forthcoming.  He  does  not 
realize  that  the  man  in  the  crowd  is  honestly  incap- 
able of  reconciling  an  ineffectual  message  and  a 
Divine  commission.  It  perhaps  never  crosses  the 
preacher's  mind  that  the  thing  which  in  theory  gives 
his  proclamation  its  validity  is  the  same  thing  that  is 
requisite  to  impart  to  it  compelling  power — and  that 
is  the  backing  of  a  united  Christendom. 

Why  are  we  all  so  slow  to  perceive  that  a  kingdom 
divided  against  itself  must  sooner  or  later  become  a 
desolation?3 

Can  any  Christian  man  seriously  doubt  the  propo- 
sition that  the  persistent  and  pacific  teachings  of  a 
united  Church  would  have  made  this  war  impossible? 
The  supposition  was  indulged  in  some  quarters  that 
England's  differences  with  Ulster  would  make  Great 

3  St.  Matthew,  xii.,  25.     (20th  Cent.  N.  T.) 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  139 

Britain  impotent.  Fortunately  for  Great  Britain, 
danger  to  the  Empire  disclosed  the  existence  of  a 
deeper  unity  than  had  been  suspected.  It  is  only 
through  the  realization  of  such  a  fundamental  unity 
among  the  communions  of  Christendom  that  the 
influence  of  Christianity  can  be  restored.  Estrange- 
ments between  branches  of  the  Christian  Church  are 
no  less  fatal  to  effective  action  than  is  the  alignment 
of  nation  against  nation.  We  have  tried  to  propa- 
gate peace  on  the  basis  of  selfishness.  We  have 
promoted  peace  conferences  in  which  the  conferees 
were  political  aggregates.  These  were  followed  b^r 
the  greatest  and  the  cruelest  war  of  history.  It 
remains  to  summon  a  world  conference  in  which  the 
units  shall  be  the  churches  of  Christendom.  When 
a  war  is  declared  between  nations,  instantly  the 
people  of  each  nation  find  themselves  in  hostile 
camps.  Granted  a  sense  of  oneness  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  a  declaration  of  war  between  nations  becomes  an 
attempt  to  separate  brother  from  brother.  Allow 
yourself  to  dream  of  a  oneness  expressed  in  a  fellow- 
ship that  is  organic,  and  you  are  imagining  a  power 
that  would  make  for  peace  as  no  other  power  known 
to  the  modern  world  could  do. 

I  do  not  regard  it  as  extravagant  to  affirm  that  in 
the  holding  of  a  World  Conference  of  Christian 
Churches  lies  the  present  hope  of  the  race.  While 
such  a  conference  must  not  be  summoned  to  promote 
a  scheme  of  unity,  yet  the  vision  of  ultimate  unity 
should  be  the  inspiration  of  every  Christian  man. 

I  venture  to  believe  that  it  is  among  the  laymen  of 


140  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

the  several  communions  that  eyes  may  most  readily 
be  anointed  to  see  this  vision.  If,  therefore,  a 
preacher  has  himself  seen  it  he  need  not  hesitate  to 
proclaim  what  has  been  vouchsafed  to  him.  He  will 
be  speaking  to  men  who  have  no  difficulty  in  realiz- 
ing some  at  least  of  the  evils  of  division.  Moreover, 
his  hearers,  since  they  are  without  official  position,  are 
not  so  much  afraid  of  being  thought  to  question  the 
sufficiency  of  standards  to  which  for  years  they  have 
been  giving  public  assent. 

At  this  point,  as  at  many  others,  I  must  guard  my 
vords.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  preacher  of  unity  is 
required  to  be  disloyal  to  his  standards.  Let  me  once 
for  all  declare  with  emphasis  that  unity  will  never 
come  about  at  the  price  of  compromise.  The  quest  of 
unity  is  a  mission  for  none  but  loyal  men. 

Let  me  also,  before  going  further,  lapse  into  my 
tiresome  habit  of  defining  terms.  By  Christian  Unity 
I  mean  that  state  of  mind  on  the  part  of  one  disciple 
toward  another  which  exists  when  each  unreservedly 
recognizes  that  the  other  is  seeking  to  know  the 
Father  through  the  Son.*  By  Church  Unity  (some- 
times called  organic  unity)  I  mean  that  measure  of 
mutual  understanding  between  disciples  which  will 
make  it  possible  for  them  together  to  partake  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  without  scruple  respecting  the 
authority  of  the  celebrant  and  without  question 
respecting  one  another's  apprehension  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  rite.  I  am  aware  that  I  am  doing  a 

4  St.  Matthew,  xi.,  27. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  141 

venturesome  thing  when  I  thus  specify  a  single  insti- 
tution as  at  once  the  obstacle  and  the  agent  of  organic 
unity;  but  I  make  my  venture  with  more  assurance 
than  is  perhaps  becoming  in  a  layman.  I  believe  that 
all  other  differences  between  men  who  confess  Our 
Lord's  Deity  would  tend  to  disappear  if  those  which 
underlie  Eucharistic  conceptions  were  to  be  resolved. 
The  reason  for  my  assurance  is  this — that  the  basis 
of  organic  unity  must  be  not  merely  oneness  but  a 
manifestation  of  that  oneness.  When  Our  Lord 
said:  "This  do,  in  remembrance  of  me,"  He  recog- 
nized that  common  action  is  the  seal  of  fellowship. 
He  did  not  say:  "Remember  me"  or  "Be  of  the  mind 
to  do  this."  "Do  this"  was  His  simple  injunction. 
And  the  action  commanded  is  in  fact  the  only  com- 
mon action  which  all  disciples  can  habitually  take.  It 
is  quite  true  that  fellowship  in  works  of  mercy  begets 
spiritual  unity ;  nay,  more — it  is  an  outcome  of  spirit- 
ual unity.  But  any  given  work  of  mercy  is  the 
activity  of  an  individual  or  of  a  larger  or  smaller 
group  of  individuals.  There  is  no  one  work  of  char- 
ity that  all  disciples  can  unite  in.  But  all  of  us  may 
unite  in  doing  the  act  which  Our  Lord  commanded. 

It  is  true  that  baptism  is  a  sacramental  act.  But 
it  is  an  isolated  act.  It  happens  once  in  the  experi- 
ence of  each  disciple.  Repeated  manifestations  of 
oneness  are  essential  to  organic  unity.  "As  often 
as  ye  do  this,"  said  Our  Lord  with  the  insight  that 
pierces  to  the  heart  of  things. 

Moreover,  it  is  true  that  no  other  act  than  this  is 
expressive  of  our  deepest  spiritual  experience. 


142  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Prayer  is  really  not  an  act  at  all :  it  is  a  state  of  mind. 
Uniting  in  prayer  is  the  simultaneous  placing  of 
many  wills  in  harmony  with  God's  will.  There  may 
be  a  glorious  fellowship  in  prayer  and  contemplation, 
but  the  external  act  counts  for  nothing.  Such  prayer 
signifies  an  inward  or  spiritual  but  not  an  organic 
unity. 

It  is  also  true  that  our  deepest  spiritual  experience 
must  be  an  act  of  receiving  something  from  God. 
As  between  man  and  man,  and  as  respects  material 
things,  it  is  more  blessed  to  give.  It  is  likewise  a 
happy  experience  to  give  back  to  God  His  own. 
But  as  between  man  and  God  the  greatest  blessing 
is  that  man  should  receive  something  from  God's 
hand.  This  is  the  natural  order.  The  communication 
to  man  of  the  Life  Divine  and  the  act  which  is  the 
vehicle  of  its  reception  seem  to  me  to  hold  a  unique 
place  in  the  realm  of  spiritual  experience.  And  not 
the  least  of  the  reasons  why  we  should  express  our 
unity  in  this  way  is  that  Our  Lord  commanded  us  to 
do  so.  "Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me,"  He  said; 
and  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  believe  that  He  meant 
"Do  it  but  do  it  separately." 

Christian  Unity,  as  I  have  defined  the  term,  is 
already  an  accomplished  fact  as  between  any  two 
disciples  who  are  both  aware  that  each  has  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is,  however,  a 
melancholy  fact  that  this  spiritual  unity  in  Our 
Blessed  Lord  is  but  dimly  perceived.  We  who  are 
separated  from  one  another  by  denominational  and 
other  barriers  give  to  the  declaration  of  oneness  an 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  143 

assent  that  is  scarcely  more  than  intellectual.  The 
Christian  preacher  will  do  a  great  thing  for  the 
world  if  for  such  assent  he  is  constantly  striving  to 
substitute  real  conviction.  A  realization  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  living  Person  and  that  to  Him  we  may  all 
give  ourselves  in  loyal  devotion  means  that  the  ties 
uniting  even  scattered  disciples  may  be  felt  to  be 
stronger  than  hoops  of  steel.  Saint  Paul  was  not 
afraid  to  put  it  strongly.  I  venture  to  think  that 
the  Jew  of  his  time  had  a  sense  of  separateness  at 
least  as  strong  as  that  which  animates  a  loyal  Roman 
Catholic.  The  Greek  had  a  race  consciousness  which 
was  no  less  distinct  than  that  of  a  self-poised  Protes- 
tant. The  distinction  between  the  slave  and  the  free- 
man was  not  with  Saint  Paul  a  mere  memory,  as  it 
is  with  us.  Women  differed  more  from  men  in  days 
of  old  than  they  do  in  those  upon  which  we  are  fallen. 
But,  in  the  presence  of  all  this  aloofness  and  of  all 
these  differences,  what  says  the  Apostle?  Mark  him 
well:  "For  ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  bap- 
tized into  Christ  have  put  on  Christ.  There  is 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  is  neither  male  nor  female:  for  ye  are  all  one 
in  Christ  Jesus."5  Oneness  in  Christ  Jesus.  One- 
ness in  the  Living  Christ.  Oneness  through  com- 
munity of  spiritual  experience.  Oneness — not  diver- 
sity. Such  is  the  Christian  Unity  that  is  ours  if  we 
will  but  have  it.  This  is  the  impulse  which  will  cause 

5  Galatians,  iv.,  26  et  seq. 


144  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

all  but  the  coarsest  spiritual  natures  to  vibrate  in 
unison. 

Organic  unity,  on  the  other  hand,  is  seemingly  be- 
yond our  reach.  The  vision  of  it  is  the  vision  of  the 
whole  Christian  fellowship,  as  of  a  multitude  before 
the  Throne,  uniting  in  that  transfigured  social  experi- 
ence wherein,  according  to  His  institution,  we  pro- 
claim the  Lord's  death  till  He  comes  again.6  This  is 
the  vision  which  I  would  that  every  Christian  prophet 
should  see  himself  and  share  with  his  people. 

But  someone  will  say  that  under  the  convenient 
cover  of  a  vision  I  am  really  undertaking  to  champion 
two  outworn  elements  in  Christianity.  In  so  far  as 
the  Lord's  Supper  is  an  institution,  it  will  be  asserted 
that  it  makes  its  appeal  only  to  what  is  external  and 
traditional.  In  so  far  as  it  stands  for  a  spiritual 
experience,  it  will  be  objected  that  such  an  experience 
belongs  in  the  realm  of  mysticism.  The  institutional 
and  the  mystical,  many  of  my  friends  will  say,  must 
give  place  to  the  religion  of  reason.  "These  are  the 
days,"  one  hears  it  constantly  asserted,  "when  the 
social  and  ethical  note  must  be  sounded  clearly.  The 
institution  is  the  discarded  shell.  Mysticism  has  no 
place  in  the  life  of  a  busy  world."  We  have,  let  me 
suggest  in  reply,  a  rather  thoughtless  way  of  assum- 
ing that  our  own  day  is  exceptional  in  its  religious 
requirements.  Of  course  we  need  emphasis  on  the 
ethical  and  the  social  note;  but  the  world  has  always 
needed  this  and  always  will.  It  is  true  that  at  times 

6  St.  Matthew,  xxvi.,  26;  St.  Mark,  xiv.,  22;  St.  Luke,  xxii., 
19;  I.  Corinthians,  xL,  26. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  145 

there  has  been  little  left  of  Christianity  except  its 
institutional  element.  At  other  times  mysticism  alone 
has  seemed  to  survive.  Contemplation  has  been 
lonely  without  service,  though  all  unaware  of  its  iso- 
lation. But  are  we  for  this  reason  to  shut  our  eyes  to 
the  obvious  fact  that  all  these  elements — the  institu- 
tional, the  ethical  and  the  mystical — have  their  proper 
place  in  religion  and  that  it  is  a  deformed  Christianity 
which  omits  any  one  of  the  three?  The  remedy  for 
lopsidedness  is  the  restoration  of  equilibrium — not  the 
shifting  of  all  the  weight  to  the  other  scale.  There  will 
always  abide  these  three  elements  in  religion — the 
institutional,  the  ethical  and  the  mystical;  and  the 
greatest  of  these  is  the  mystical.7  Mysticism,  I  know, 
is  one  of  the  words  which  among  men  of  action  arouses 
a  prejudice  against  itself  as  soon  as  uttered.  But 
again  I  take  refuge  in  definition.  I  quote  from  the 
utterance  of  a  lawyer  of  the  Orient — Mr.  Justice 

7  The  following  interesting  reference  to  the  mystical  theology 
of  the  middle  ages  is  made  by  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  in  his  life  of 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux  (page  344) :  "On  the  subsequent  pictorial 
art  of  Europe,  the  impressions  of  this  theology  survive.  There 
are  pictures,  for  example,  of  Guido  Reni  in  the  gallery  at 
Bologna,  which  seem  to  have  been  bathed  in  it.  It  continually 
appealed,  with  an  unfailing  power,  to  lofty  minds,  to  devout 
and  aspiring  hearts.  It  appeared  as  clearly  as  anywhere  else 
in  Hugh  and  Richard  of  Saint  Victor,  and  in  the  saintly  Bona- 
ventura.  It  was  later  essentially  reproduced  in  the  illustrious 
Chancellor  Gerson,  to  whom  at  different  times  has  been  ascribed, 
though  no  doubt  incorrectly,  the  Imitation  of  Christ;  who 
wrote  largely  on  the  Mystical  Theology,  while  he  also  showed 
himself,  practically  as  well  as  theoretically,  a  master  in  the 


146  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

Chandavarkar  of  Bombay.  "Religious  life,"  says  he, 
"is  possible  only  when  one  gets  to  the  centre  of  life, 
which  is  God  Himself."8  It  is  this  inner  experience  of 

art  of  leading  little  children  to  Christ*  Thomas  a  Kempis  was 
a  mystic,  whose  Imitatio  Christi  has  had  wider  circulation 
in  Christendom  than  any  other  book  except  the  Bible,  and  who 
in  it  quotes  abundantly  from  the  writings  of  Bernard.  Petrarch 
was  in  his  last  years  a  mystic,  after  the  golden  tresses  of  Laura 
disappearing  from  the  world  had  left  it  hung  with  sombre 
shadows.  So  was  Francis  de  Sales,  whose  Introduction  to  a 
Devout  Life  commended  itself  to  Protestants  as  well  as  to 
Catholics,  and  was  translated  in  many  tongues.  The  same  spirit 
reappeared  in  Madame  Guyon,  to  whom  prayer  was  "the  silence 
of  a  soul  absorbed  in  God/'  and  in  the  devout  and  faithful  Fene- 
lon.  Through  the  great  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  temper  if  not  the  terms  of  this  theology  became  more  familiar 
than  ever  before,  throughout  the  world;  and  Guizot  found  his 
philosophical  attention  arrested  and  impressed  by  "the  singular 
seductiveness  of  those  theories  of  pure  love  which  were  taught  at 
the  court  of  Louis  Fourteenth  by  his  grandchildren's  perceptor, 
at  a  woman's  instigation,  and  which,"  as  he  says,  "were  zealously 
preached  fifty  years  afterward  by  President  Jonathan  Edwards, 
of  New  Jersey  College,  in  the  cold  and  austere  atmosphere  of 
New  England."  The  quotation  from  Guizot  is  found  in  his 
History  of  France  (Boston  ed.),  Vol.  v.,  p.  584. 

*  A  la  fin  de  sa  carriere,  apres  avoir  ete  mele  a  toutes  les  luttes 
du  quinzieme  siecle,  assiste  an  concile  de  Bale  et  pris  parti  pour 
une  sage  reforme  de  1'figlise,  il  quitta  sa  charge  de  chancelier,  se 
retira  ou  fut  exile  a  Lyon,  et  la  se  fit  maitre  d'ecole  pour  de  petits 
enfants,  comme  on  le  voit  dans  le  traite  si  remarquable  De  Parvu- 
lis  ad  Christum  traliendis,  de  1'art  de  conduire  a  Jesus-Christ  les 
petits  enfants. — Cousin:  Hist,  de  la  Philosophic,  p.  265.  Paris 
ed.,  1867. 

8  Quoted  by  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  in  Christ  and  the 
Eastern  Soul,  p.  33. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  147 

the  Divine  which  is  properly  called  mystical.  Mysti- 
cism is  the  realization  of  the  unity  of  one's  self  with 
God.  If  a  man  has  achieved  the  collaboration  of  the 
institutional  and  the  intellectual,  "his  religion  will  still 
be  incomplete  and  semi- operative,  because  still  not 
reaching  to  what  is  deepest  and  nearest  to  his  will.  A 
final  transition,  the  addition  of  the  third  force,  that  of 
the  emotional-experimental  life,  must  yet  be  safely 
achieved."9 

The  failure  to  recognize  the  legitimate  presence  of 
mysticism  in  Christianity  is  a  characteristic  of  much 
contemporary  thinking.  I  open  that  most  helpful 
book,  The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World10 
and  I  find  its  keynote  in  a  beautiful  and  touching  dedi- 
cation wherein  I  understand  it  to  be  implied  that  the 
modern  world  is  happy  in  the  substitution  of  service 
for  contemplation.  The  mediaeval  saint  sought  Christ 
in  vision  and  on  the  altar.  The  newer  saintliness  of 
to-day  finds  its  heavenly  vision  in  works  of  love. 
From  one  half-truth  we  turn  to  another.  Neither 
contemplation  alone  nor  service  alone  can  satisfy  Our 
Lord's  purpose  for  the  soul.  We  must,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  seek  Him  and  find  Him  in  mystical  communion; 
but  what  we  gain  at  the  altar  we  must  spend  on  the 
world. 

More  alarming  to  many  than  the  mystical  is  the 
sacramental  aspect  of  religion.  By  many,  therefore, 
I  shall  be  more  than  criticised — I  shall  be  condemned 

9  von  Hiigel:  The  Mystical  Element  of  Religion,  Vol.  I.,  p.  55. 

10  The  McNair  Lectures  for  1918,  by  Dr.  Francis  Greenwood 
Peabody. 


148  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

for  associating  the  sacramental  conception  with  the 
ideal  of  organic  unity.  And  yet  I  cannot  escape  the 
conclusion  that  the  sacramental  element  is  as  vital 
and  permanent  in  the  intercourse  between  man  and 
God  as  it  is  in  communion  between  man  and  man.  It 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  accordant  to  the  natural 
order  that  when  Our  Lord  desired  to  engraft  Himself 
into  the  life  of  His  disciples  He  summoned  the  ma- 
terial to  become  the  vehicle  of  the  spiritual.  I  am 
not  now  speaking  of  varying  apprehensions  of  sacra- 
mental operations.  I  am  not  distinguishing  between 
Saint  Paul's  emphasis  on  the  social  and  Saint  John's 
emphasis  on  the  individual  note  in  the  Eucharist.  I 
wish  merely  to  register  my  own  conviction  that  as  reli- 
gion is  barren  without  the  mystical  so  the  mystical  is 
elusive  without  the  sacramental.  In  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per I  seem  to  find  scope  for  the  presence  of  all  neces- 
sary religious  elements.  The  abuses  of  the  sacrament 
have  sprung,  and  will  continue  to  spring,  from  a  dis- 
turbance of  equilibrium.  But  he  is  a  wise  man  who 
will  not  allow  himself  to  be  distracted  from  the  pursuit 
of  truth  merely  because  the  seeker  after  truth  may 
easily  lapse  into  error. 

Many  a  man  in  the  crowd,  and  now  and  then  a  man 
in  the  pulpit,  will  at  first  make  light  of  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  realizing  the  vision  of  organic  unity. 
"If  it  is  only  a  matter  of  partaking  together  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  why  not  do  it  and  so  transform  vision 
into  experience?"  This  is  a  common-sense  inquiry. 
It  is  not  easy  to  give  a  convincing  answer  to  so  direct 
and  proper  a  question.  The  mere  fact  that  it  is  asked 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  149 

indicates  that  the  questioner  is  not  accustomed  to  give 
weight  to  the  considerations  which  must  constitute  the 
basis  of  the  reply.  To  press  the  inquiry  will  almost 
certainly  lead  to  controversy.  When  controversy 
begins  the  spirit  of  unity  evaporates.  In  the  presence 
of  so  vital  a  question  the  proper  course  is  not  to 
attempt  to  give  a  reason  but,  first,  to  reaffirm  the 
patent  fact  that  disciples  do  not  together  partake  of 
the  Lord's  Supper11  and,  second,  to  strive  for  a  clearer 
apprehension  of  the  different  aspects  of  the  rite  as 
perceived  by  the  various  Christian  groups.  Unity,  if 
you  pursue  it  directly,  is  a  veritable  will-o'-the-wisp ; 
but  strive  to  see  truth  through  the  eyes  of  a  brother 
disciple,  not  only  through  you  own,  and  it  may  be  that 
unity  will  be  the  reward  of  your  striving. 

If  the  preacher  is  desirous  of  interpreting  a  difficult 
conception  to  the  man  in  the  pew  he  will  do  well  to  use 
as  a  medium  some  conceptions  with  which  the  man 
is  fairly  familiar.  There  are  few  perfect  analogies; 
but  fortunately  for  all  of  us  perfection  is  not  indis- 
pensable to  usefulness.  Let  me  illustrate  my  mean- 
ing by  asking  you  to  entertain  one  or  two  legal  con- 
ceptions. 

A  thief  steals  A's  watch  and  sells  it  to  B,  a  watch- 
seller.  B  buys  in  entire  good  faith  and  pays  a  full 
price.  The  thief  pockets  the  money  and  disappears. 
B  then  sells  to  C,  a  customer,  who  likewise  buys  in 
good  faith  and  pays  full  value.  If  the  situation 
remains  unchanged  A  is  the  only  loser.  If  C  is  com- 

11  For  a  fine  comment  on  this  unhappy  situation,  see  The  Con- 
structive Quarterly,  April,  1914,  p.  65  et  seq. 


150  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

pelled  to  restore  the  watch  to  A,  C  becomes  the  loser. 
What  adjustment  of  the  difficulty  will  best  serve  the 
convenience  of  the  community? 

When  I  began  the  study  of  law  I  was  compelled  to 
absorb  the  Commentaries  of  Sir  William  Blackstone. 
He  was  an  Englishman  through  and  through.  His 
admiration  for  the  English  law  was  unbounded. 
Wherever  the  civil  law — the  law  of  Rome  and  of 
Continental  Europe — differed  from  the  law  of  Eng- 
land it  was  so  much  the  worse  for  the  civil  law.  I  was 
quite  as  thoroughly  imbued  with  a  sense  of  the 
superiority  of  our  jurisprudence  as  with  the  belief 
that  the  doctrine,  discipline  and  worship  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  is  identical  with  the  whole 
counsel  of  God.  When,  therefore,  our  law  required 
C  to  give  back  A's  watch  or  pay  its  value  in  money  I 
felt  sorry  for  any  community  which  was  compelled 
to  submit  to  a  different  rule.12 

In  process  of  time  I  realized  that  continental  com- 
munities might  prosper  even  if  C  were  permitted  to 
keep  the  watch  and  leave  A  to  bear  the  loss.13  Further 
reflection  satisfied  me  that  the  ultimate  solution  of 

12  The  result  here  stated  was  modified  at  common  law  by  the 
extension  of  the  market-overt  doctrine  to  the  London  shops. 

13  Section  2280  of  the  Code  Napoleon  contains  the  following 
provision:  "If  the  actual  possessor  of  the  thing  stolen  has  pur- 
chased it  from  a  merchant  who  sells  similar  articles,  the  ori- 
ginal proprietor  can  only  procure  it  to  be  restored  to  him  on 
repaying  to  the  possessor  the  price  which  it  cost  him."    The  Code 
Napoleon  is  an  expression  of  the  Civil  Law  of  Rome  as  developed 
by  centuries  of  experience. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  151 

the  problem  depended  largely  upon  a  question  of 
emphasis.  If  special  stress  is  to  be  laid  on  the  sanc- 
tity of  ownership,  A  must  be  protected.  If  the  stress 
is  to  be  laid  on  commercial  convenience,  the  bona  fide 
purchaser  must  not  be  allowed  to  suffer.  In  other 
words,  the  English  rule  is  excellent,  not  for  patriotic 
reasons,  but  because  it  accords  with  the  proprietary 
instincts  of  the  race.  Traders  would  prefer  the  other 
rule.  Now  it  has  often  happened  that  lawyers  have 
disputed  about  the  relative  excellence  of  competing 
rules  without  ever  trying  to  ascertain  whether  each 
was  the  expression  of  a  half-truth.  They  have 
assumed  that  either  A  or  C  must  bear  the  whole  loss. 
One  man  shouted  for  England  and  the  other  for 
Rome.  It  is  as  if  one  were  to  assert :  "The  restoration 
of  the  watch  to  A  is  a  reasonable  thing  and  is  in  con- 
formity with  good  old  Protestant  principles.  The 
Roman  conclusion  is  mystical  and  elusive.  Presto, 
change !  the  watch  becomes  C's.  It  is  nothing  but  the 
religion  of  magic."  The  Roman  champion  might 
reply:  "C's  right  to  retain  the  watch  is  established  by 
a  legal  system  which  has  received  assent  everywhere 
except  in  England  where  its  rejection  is  probably 
due  to  the  divorce  of  Henry  VIII.  The  reasons  given 
for  restoring  the  watch  to  A  are  unsound,  as  reasons 
generally  are." 

Has  not  this  kind  of  disputation  a  somewhat  famil- 
iar sound?  We  are  all  so  apt  to  assume  that  a  thing 
must  be  either  this  or  that.  We  are,  moreover,  prone 
to  substitute  arguments  for  reasons.  The  reasons 
why  I  am  an  Episcopalian  are  very  different  from  the 


152  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

arguments  which  I  should  advance  in  favor  of  episco- 
pacy. In  the  case  of  the  watch,  is  it  not  just  possible 
that  neither  A  nor  C  should  bear  the  whole  loss? 
Each  is  an  innocent  victim.  Both  ownership  and 
commercial  convenience  are  worth  emphasizing.  Can 
not  something  be  said  in  favor  of  compelling  C  to  give 
back  the  watch  but  only  on  condition  that  A  shall  pay 
him  one-half  its  value?  In  other  words,  may  not  both 
the  Englishman  and  the  Roman  be  right,  while  each 
has  something  to  learn  from  the  other?  Of  course 
the  answer  is  easy  that  I  am  suggesting  a  cowardly 
compromise.  I  am  ingeniously  trying  to  assimilate 
a  religious  conviction  to  a  chattel.  Nothing  of  the 
sort.  I  am  pointing  out  that,  with  respect  to  chattels, 
lawyers  would  often  do  well  to  ascertain  what  con- 
siderations which  they  have  overlooked  have  actually 
received  attention  in  other  jurisdictions.  I  am  sug- 
gesting that,  in  such  a  process,  their  conception  of 
rights  may  possibly  be  enriched  and  their  system  of 
law  improved.  From  this  I  wish  to  draw  the  infer- 
ence, with  respect  to  religious  convictions,  that  many 
beliefs  which  are  assumed  to  be  opposed  to  one  another 
are  really  varying  apprehensions  of  the  same  truth 
and  that  one  Christian  man,  by  better  understanding 
his  fellow  disciple,  may  clear  up  his  own  thinking  and 
both  give  and  get  much  spiritual  enrichment.  When, 
in  the  case  of  beliefs,  efforts  at  synthesis  fail,  it  is  quite 
true  that  there  is  no  room  for  compromise.  Had  each 
of  the  two  women  who  appealed  to  King  Solomon14 


14 


I.  Kings,  iii.,  16  et  seq. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  153 

honestly  believed  the  child  was  her  own,  any  proposi- 
tion of  compromise  would  have  been  rejected  by  both, 
just  as  the  suggestion  of  partition  was  repudiated  by 
the  true  mother.  The  fact  of  maternity  is,  however, 
more  readily  established  than  the  validity  of  a  man's 
claim  to  an  apprehension  of  the  whole  truth.  There 
are  some  children  of  my  intellect  that  would  be  the 
better  for  division,  others  for  addition  and  still  others, 
perhaps,  for  subtraction. 

One  Saturday  evening  in  February,  1815,  Mr. 
Organ  and  Mr.  Gerault  were  bargaining  in  New 
Orleans  about  some  cotton  which  the  latter  had  for 
sale.  The  price  fixed  by  the  vendor  was  too  high  and 
Organ  went  home  without  buying.  During  the  night 
messengers  brought  the  news  of  the  signing  of  the 
Treaty  of  Ghent  which  ended  the  War  of  1812. 
Organ  must  have  been  up  early  Sunday  morning,  be- 
cause after  hearing  the  news  he  went  to  Gerault's 
house  and  arrived  there  soon  after  sunrise.  He  told 
the  vendor  he  would  take  the  cotton  at  the  asking 
price.  Gerault,  being  in  ignorance  of  the  news,  asked 
if  Organ  had  heard  anything  calculated  to  enhance  the 
price.  Organ  was  silent.  The  purchase  was  made,  the 
bill  of  parcels  delivered  and  immediately  the  price  of 
cotton  rose  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent.  Gerault 
refused  to  deliver  the  cotton  and  Organ  sued  him. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  an  opin- 
ion by  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  decided  that  Organ 
was  entitled  to  recover.15  He  had  been  under  no  duty 

15  Laidlaw  v.  Organ,  2  Wheaton,  178  (1817). 


154  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

to  tell  what  he  knew.  Gerault,  by  failing  to  press  his 
question,  had  waived  his  right  to  receive  a  truthful 
answer. 

It  seems  clear  that,  according  to  the  Roman  Law, 
the  case  should  have  been  decided  the  other  way. 
Cicero16  puts  a  case  arising  out  of  a  famine  in  the 
island  of  Rhodes.  Slow-moving  vessels  laden  with 
grain  were  on  their  way  to  give  relief.  A  merchant 
of  Alexandria,  knowing  this  fact,  loaded  a  swift 
trireme,  passed  the  grain  fleet  on  the  way,  arrived 
first  at  the  starving  city  and  sold  his  cargo  at  famine 
prices  without  disclosing  the  approach  of  an  ample 
supply.  Two  Stoics  argue  the  question.  Cicero 
decides  that  the  merchant  was  bound  to  make  the  dis- 
closure. He  exhausts  the  vocabulary  of  adjectives 
in  characterizing  the  merchant's  conduct.17  The 
American  case  and  the  Roman  case  are  not  precisely 
on  all  fours;  but  the  same  principle  is  involved  in 
both. 

Here  is  another  fine  field  for  loyal  disputants.  Let 
each  begin  with  the  tacit  assumption  that  he  is  right 
and  arguments  will  fly  thick  and  fast.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  the  dispute  will  be  made  to  turn  on  the 
question  whether  the  conduct  of  Organ  in  the  one  case 
and  of  the  Alexandrian  merchant  in  the  other  can  be 
reconciled  with  principles  of  fair  dealing.  Organ's 
conduct  was  better  than  the  other  merchant's ;  because, 

16  De  Officiis,  Book  III. 

17  He  describes  it  as  "eerie   non  aperti,  non  simplicis,  non 
ingenui,  non  justi,  non  viri  boni;  versuti  potius,  obscuri,  astuti, 
fallacis,  malitiosi,  callidi,  veteratoris,  vafri." 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  155 

theoretically  at  least,  Gerault  might  have  heard  the 
news  had  he  been  out  early  enough.  The  real  ques- 
tion, however,  seems  to  be  this :  assuming  that  in  both 
cases  honor  should  have  compelled  disclosure,  can  the 
rule  of  law  conform  to  the  rule  of  honor  without  be- 
coming too  indefinite  in  its  application  to  varying 
states  of  fact?  In  other  words,  is  it  practicable  to 
enforce  the  standard  of  utmost  good  faith  in  courts 
of  law?  This  question  can  best  be  answered  by  saying 
that  there  has  been  a  steady  tendency  to  incorporate 
the  Roman  ideal  into  the  common  law  of  England  and 
that  at  the  present  time  it  may  be  said  to  have  gained 
definite  recognition  in  our  law  of  insurance  and  in 
certain  departments  of  equity  jurisprudence.  It  is 
as  if  each  of  two  groups  of  disciples  had  been  sure  at 
the  outset  that  its  own  apprehension  of  a  religious 
truth  was  final  and  complete  and  as  if  conference  and 
intercourse  had  tended  to  make  one  of  the  groups  see 
through  the  other's  eyes  till  the  two  apprehensions 
finally  became  one. 

It  would  be  possible  to  multiply  illustrations.  Dif- 
ferences between  English  and  American  constitu- 
tional law  suggest  many  such.  Fourth  of  July  orators 
have  often  made  us  blush  for  the  folly  of  our  English 
brethren  in  retaining  their  king  notwithstanding 
our  demonstration  of  the  superiority  of  an  executive 
elected  for  a  short  term.  How  absurd,  we  say,  to 
have  a  monarch  who  does  not  influence  governmental 
policy  or  make  himself  felt  in  the  decision  of  questions 
which  divide  his  subjects.  We  are  apt  to  overlook  the 
value  to  our  brethren  of  having  at  all  times  before 


156  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

their  eyes  a  man  who  is  the  embodiment  of  the  na- 
tional ideal — a  living  person  who  symbolizes  that  to 
which  their  loyalty  is  due.  As  he  was  not  the  choice 
of  a  mere  majority  or  the  selection  of  a  party  he  may 
not  voice  one  side  of  a  disputed  question;  but  he 
represents  the  people  in  all  those  matters  in  which 
they  are  agreed  and  so  contributes  to  a  deeper  unity. 
Our  chief  executive  begins  his  term  with  at  least  a 
large  minority  in  critical  mood.  When  he  advocates 
and  seeks  to  enforce  a  policy  that  is  unpopular,  vast 
numbers  of  people  find  themselves  in  opposition,  not 
merely  to  a  ministry  or  to  a  majority  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  but  to  the  only  man  who  has  any  claim  to 
be  regarded  as  a  representative  of  the  nation.  The 
disturbance  of  the  currents  of  national  life  usually 
incident  to  a  presidential  election  is  a  high  price  to 
pay  for  the  privilege  of  voting  for  our  executive.  The 
patriotic  spirit  is  by  no  means  lacking  amongst  us,  but 
many  would  find  it  an  emotional  relief  if  there  were 
always  before  us  a  national  figure  to  cheer  for,  instead 
of  that  figment  of  the  imagination  which  we  call 
Uncle  Sam.  Perhaps  it  is  easier  to  attribute  to  even 
a  commonplace  man  the  qualities  of  true  royalty  than 
to  be  enthusiastic  over  a  personification  of  initial 
letters.  There,  at  any  rate,  are  two  points  of  view, 
and  we  Americans  will  do  well  if  in  matters  govern- 
mental we  strive  for  the  spirit  of  teachableness.  The 
great  constructive  problem  which  will  face  the  world 
at  the  end  of  this  war  is  how  best  to  combine  the  effi- 
ciency of  monarchy  and  the  liberty  of  democracy. 
We  cannot  afford  to  be  spineless  and  we  must  be  free. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  157 

We  boast  the  separation  of  our  governmental  powers 
into  the  executive,  the  legislative  and  the  judicial. 
We  are  far  from  having  solved  the  riddle  of  the  exec- 
utive. Anybody  who  believes  that  our  legislative 
institutions  are  substantially  satisfactory  should  be 
sentenced  to  read  the  legislative  enactments  of  the 
several  states.  Our  courts  are  our  national  glory; 
but  I  know  many  lawyers — even  those  who  win  their 
cases — who  think  there  is  not  glory  enough  to  go 
round.  I  am  a  convinced  believer  in  the  possibilities 
of  our  constitutional  system  and  I  am  optimistic 
respecting  our  experiment  in  democracy;  but  it  makes 
me  laugh  out  loud  when  I  hear  people  attributing 
complete  success  to  our  governmental  gropings  and 
entire  failure  to  our  Christian  aspirations. 

Before  this  excursion  into  fields  familiar  to  the 
lawyer,  I  was  careful  to  admit  that  such  trophies  as  I 
might  secure  would  not  be  in  the  form  of  perfect  anal- 
ogies. My  hope,  however,  is  that  one  man  in  the 
crowd  may  now  have  thrown  out  some  suggestions 
which  other  men  like  himself  can  make  use  of  in  con- 
sidering the  subject  of  unity.  The  prophet  of  unity 
will  accomplish  little  if  he  approaches  his  subject  as 
if  it  were  merely  a  problem  of  law  or  of  business  or  of 
government.  On  the  other  hand,  he  may  do  much  if 
he  stimulates  men  to  think  synthetically  about  prob- 
lems of  law,  business  and  government  and  to  carry  the 
same  process  into  ^he  sphere  of  religious  truth. 

When  one  surveys  the  many  regiments  into  which 
the  Christian  army  is  divided  the  first  impression  is  of 
hopeless  confusion.  Difference  of  uniform  is  the 


158  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

least  of  the  divergences.  Each  has  a  drill  that  differs 
from  the  others.  Each  has  a  different  manual  of 
tactics  and  its  own  theory  of  grand  strategy.  Com- 
mands issued  to  all  alike  are  variously  interpreted  by 
those  to  whom  they  are  addressed.  One  regiment  is 
irritated  at  another  because  of  a  failure  to  give  it 
effective  support.  There  are  jealousies  and  mutual 
suspicions.  That  defeat  and  disaster  will  quickly  fol- 
low is  the  confident  prediction  of  deserters  and  war 
correspondents.  The  patient  observer,  however,  finds 
this  element  of  hopefulness  in  the  situation — that  all 
the  regiments  are  unswerving  in  their  loyalty  to  the 
Commander  in  Chief.  There  is  no  willful  disobedi- 
ence. Only  misinterpretation  of  orders.  This,  while 
temporarily  disastrous,  is  not  necessarily  fatal.  More- 
over the  differences  in  regimental  theory  and  prac- 
tice prove  not  to  be  so  great  as  at  first  they  appear. 
Apparent  divergences  are  found  in  many  cases  to  be 
different  methods  of  attaining  the  same  result  or 
various  ways  of  saying  the  same  thing.  And  binding 
all  the  regiments  together  is  their  loyal  devotion  to 
their  Leader. 

The  age-long  controversy  is  still  being  waged  be- 
tween those  who  highly  value  the  creeds  of  Christen- 
dom and  those  who  do  not.  The  former  prize  the 
creeds  for  what  they  are.  The  latter  criticise  them  for 
what  they  are  not.  Says  a  recent  writer:18  "They  are 
declarations  of  dogma  not  directions  for  life.  They 
codify  Christian  opinion  rather  than  modify  Christian 

18  Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody:  The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern 
World,  p.  202. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  159 

character."  Either  of  two  inferences  may  be  drawn 
from  this  comment.  One  is  that  declarations  of 
dogma  are  of  small  value,  irrespective  of  their  sub- 
ject-matter. The  other  is  that  such  a  declaration 
would  be  proof  against  criticism  if  it  contained  not 
merely  an  affirmation  of  theological  belief  but  also 
positive  directions  for  a  Christian  life.  The  former 
inference  is  probably  not  intended.  There  are  few 
utterances  more  dogmatic  than  those  of  thinkers  who 
affirm  that  creeds  are  outworn.  One  looks,  therefore, 
for  the  suggestion  of  a  comprehensive  creed — one 
that  shall  deal  both  with  conduct  and  with  the  belief 
which  is  the  inspiration  of  conduct.  But  such  a  creed 
one  seeks  in  vain.  The  suggestion  appears  to  be 
merely  of  a  creed  which  must  likewise  err  by  defect, 
in  that  it  is  merely  a  confession  of  faith  in  obedience, 
loyalty  and  discipleship  and  is  silent  respecting  the 
God  Who  is  to  be  obeyed,  the  Master  to  Whom  we 
are  to  be  loyal  and  the  Church  in  which  we  are  to  be 
fellow  disciples.  The  fallacy  that  underlies  all 
attempts  to  array  a  creedal  and  a  creedless  Christian- 
ity against  one  another  is  the  tacit  assumption  that 
only  the  latter  is  concerned  with  righteousness  of 
life.  One  can  be  most  eloquent  in  depicting  the  sin- 
fulness  of  a  man  who  recites  the  Nicene  Creed  and 
the  holiness  of  a  man  who  repudiates  it;  but  if  the 
Christlike  life  is  really  the  aim  of  each,  the  contro- 
versy can  be  brought  back  to  the  starting  point 
merely  by  citing  a  few  examples  of  good  men  who 
use  creeds  and  of  bad  men  who  do  not.  The  remedy 
for  undue  emphasis  on  dogma  is  not  an  attempt  to 


160  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

get  along  without  formulated  belief,19  but  eternal 
insistence  that  dogma  exists  for  one  purpose  only 
and  that  is  to  inspire  conduct  and  transform  char- 
acter. The  man  in  the  pew  confesses  his  belief  in 
God  the  Father  Almighty.  The  man  in  the  pulpit 
takes  him  at  his  word  and  proceeds  to  enforce  the 
lessons  which  are  consequent  upon  that  belief.  "That 
God,"  says  the  preacher,  "in  Whom  you  make  a 
barren  profession  of  faith — Him  declare  I  unto  you." 
The  creed  deals  with  the  reaches  of  Our  Lord's  Life 
which  culminate  in  His  birth  and  begin  with  His 
Passion.  These  are  the  mysteries  of  the  faith.  What 
lie  between  are  the  facts  of  the  earthly  ministry. 
Out  of  these  the  preacher  constructs  his  sermon.  The 
true  prophet  of  unity  does  not  suffer  himself  to  be- 
come irritated  by  codifications  of  Christian  opinion. 
He  seeks  to  ascertain  their  limits  of  usefulness  and 
to  weave  them  into  the  texture  of  a  rounded  Christian 
life.20 

The  child  needs  defmiteness  of  teaching.  He  may 
want  opportunity  to  fling  himself  about ;  but  he  must 
early  be  taught  the  meaning  of  close  application. 
Some  educational  theories  lay  stress  upon  the  import- 
ance of  gratifying  the  desire  for  largeness  and  free- 

19  "It  is  absurd,"  says  Dr.  Du  Bose,  "to  say  that  there  can  be 
a  religion  of  God  without  a  theology,  or  a  life  of  Christ  without 
a  Christology,  truth  without  doctrine,  faith  without  creed,  church 
without  order  or  orders,  sacraments  or  worship  without  forms." 
The  Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  I.,  p.  7. 

20  A  fine  example  of  the  way  in  which  a  devotional  use  may  be 
made  of  the  creed  is  Dr.  Johnston  Ross's  The  God  We  Trust. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  161 

dom.  Others  exact  his  minute  and  careful  attention. 
A  considerable  experience  with  men  who  have  gone 
wrong  leads  me  to  believe  it  easier  to  reclaim  those 
who  in  early  life  were  given  definite,  dogmatic  instruc- 
tion in  fundamental  religious  truths.  The  preacher 
of  unity  must  avoid  the  common  mistake  of  talking 
about  men  as  if  they  remained  unchanged  throughout 
life.  It  may  be  that  a  religious  experience  familiar  to 
a  disciple  of  mature  years  is  beyond  the  spiritual 
grasp  of  a  youth.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  that 
a  form  of  teaching  well  suited  to  the  child  is  ill  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  a  man  in  middle  life.  The  child's  reli- 
gion is  "predominantly  traditional  and  historical, 
institutional  and  external."21  The  young  man's  reli- 
gion expresses  itself  in  terms  of  a  philosophy.  The 
mature  man  finds  his  religious  satisfaction  in  the 
experimental  and  the  mystical.  If  the  creeds  are 
learned  in  childhood,  they  may  be  found  capable  of 
inspiring  youth  with  the  spirit  of  service  and  of  steady- 
ing the  man  in  his  mystical  speculations.  Should  this 
be  recognized  as  the  function  of  creeds  it  might  well 
prove  true  that  another  form  of  teaching  is  better 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  those  who  are  untaught  until 
youth  or  middle  life.  Here,  as  in  all  considerations 
of  divergent  religious  views,  generalizations  should  be 
made  with  great  care.  Let  the  man  who  stands  by 
the  creeds  examine  himself  well  to  ascertain  whether 
his  religion  is  tending  to  become  formal  and  external. 
Let  his  brother  who  leans  on  no  creed  search  his  heart 

21  von  Hugel,  Vol.  I.,  p.  54. 


162  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

for  the  germs  of  unbelief  in  the  God  whom  the  creeds 
confess.  Let  every  preacher  who  would  hasten  the 
day  of  unity  sedulously  refrain  from  magnifying 
such  difference  of  apprehension  as  there  is.  Let  his 
aim  be  to  interpret  each  disciple  to  the  other. 

As  with  a  consideration  of  creeds  so  it  should  be 
with  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Here  as  much  as  anywhere  the  subject  has  been  con- 
fused by  the  use  of  undefined  terms.  Probably 
everybody  will  agree  that  there  is  a  certain  nexus 
between  all  disciples  who  are  ready  to  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lord  of  their  lives.  This  is  a 
spiritual  fact.  It  exists  even  in  that  stage  of  experi- 
ence which  precedes  the  inquiry,  "What  manner  of 
man  is  this?"  The  fact  that  even  wind  and  sea  obey 
Him22  is  enough  to  compel  discipleship.  If  the  word 
"Church"  is  applied  to  the  whole  number  of  those 
who  are  thus  ready  to  give  their  allegiance  to  the 
Master,  it  is  being  given  a  perfectly  intelligible  and 
reasonably  definite  meaning.  Moreover,  it  is  of  great 
importance  to  recognize  that  there  are  many  people 
who  are  so  constituted  as  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
record  of  the  words  and  acts  of  the  Master  as  a  source 
of  inspiration.  They  say,  in  effect,  "Let  us  be  thank- 
ful for  that  of  which  we  can  be  certain;  let  us  avoid 
curious  inquiries  respecting  that  which  we  can  never 
know."  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  most  men,  when 
they  perceive  that  the  Master  has  stilled  a  tempest, 
cannot  be  deterred  from  asking,  "What  manner  of 

22  St.  Matthew,  viii.,  27;  St.  Luke,  viii.,  25. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  163 

man  is  this  ?"  If  to  their  own  satisfaction  the  question 
is  answered  by  the  assertion  that  God  Himself  has 
appeared  in  human  life,  at  least  one  thing  becomes 
clear — namely,  that  the  spiritual  tie  which  tightly 
binds  all  who  accept  this  answer  is  one  that  tends  to 
separate  them  as  a  group  not  only  from  those  who 
acknowledge  no  allegiance  to  Christ  but  also  from 
those  who,  owing  such  allegiance,  are  not  interested 
in  the  question  and  therefore  not  concerned  with  the 
answer.  If  to  this  second  group  the  name  Church  is 
given,  it  becomes  most  important  to  recognize  that 
the  term  is  now  being  used  in  a  different  sense  from 
before.  The  man  in  the  first  group  is  tempted  to 
criticise  the  man  who  insists  upon  asking  what  manner 
of  man  Our  Lord  is.  He  uses  all  sorts  of  uncompli- 
mentary adjectives  to  describe  the  questioner.  The 
man  who  is  so  constituted  that  he  cannot  withhold 
the  inquiry,  and  to  whom  the  answer  has  revealed  a 
new  world,  is  tempted  to  reply  in  kind — only  more 
so.  A  dispute  then  arises  even  as  to  the  proper  use  of 
the  name  "Christian" — which  is,  after  all,  merely 
another  question  of  definition.  But  this  is  by  no 
means  all.  Some  of  those  who  have  asked  the  ques- 
tion and  accepted  the  answer  are  of  the  mind  to 
believe  that  the  acceptance  of  so  tremendous  a  fact  as 
the  appearance  of  God  Himself  in  human  life  should 
receive  formal  attestation  in  the  case  of  each  assenting 
disciple.  Baptism  ensues:  and  the  baptismal  formula 
becomes  a  creed.  A  third  meaning  of  the  word 
Church  is  recognizable.  It  is  now  used  to  indicate 


164  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

the  company  of  the  baptized.  The  disgust  of  the  man 
in  the  first  group  is  not  diminished.  Moreover,  there 
are  those  in  the  second  group  who  protest  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  third.  In  the  third  group  itself  two 
further  classes  of  differentiation  develop.  One  is 
concerned  with  the  conditions  of  baptism.  The  other 
has  to  do  with  problems  of  organization  and  govern- 
ment. By  some,  infant  baptism  is  condemned  as  un- 
scriptural.  By  others,  adult  baptism  is  derided  as 
spectacular.  The  latter  would  restrict  the  use  of  the 
word  Church  to  those  who  have  actually  passed 
through  a  spiritual  experience  and  have  had  the  cour- 
age to  attest  it  under  trying  conditions.  Here  we 
detect  a  fourth  meaning.  On  the  side  of  order,  there 
is  a  cleavage  between  those  who  esteem  it  sufficient 
that  the  baptized  should  act  in  groups,  either  con- 
gregational or  other,  and  those  who  conceive  that, 
whenever  certain  spiritually  important  action  is 
taken,  it  should  be  taken  on  behalf  of  the  whole  com- 
pany of  the  baptized.  Those  on  one  side  of  this  line 
apply  the  word  Church  to  each  of  the  voluntary 
groups.  Those  on  the  other  side  use  it  only  to  signify 
such  organized  fellowships  as  insist  upon  the  repre- 
sentative idea.  Here  is  a  fifth  meaning  and  also  a 
sixth.  Then  among  those  who  value  representative 
action  taken  on  behalf  of  all,  there  is  a  distinction 
between  such  as  recognize  large  residuary  authority 
as  resident  in  all  the  baptized  and  such  as  hold  that 
final  utterances  as  to  faith  and  morals  must  proceed 
from  one  official  source,  which  source  thus  becomes 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  165 

the  principium  et  causa  unitatis.™  By  those  who  hold 
the  latter  view  it  is  inevitable  that  the  word  Church 
should  be  used  in  a  sense  still  more  restricted ;  so  that 
we  have  a  seventh  meaning.  To  these  may  be  added 
the  New  Testament  uses  of  the  term  to  indicate  even 
a  household  group  of  disciples  or  the  faithful  in  a 
particular  locality.  Since,  naturally  enough,  the 
word  is  also  used  to  describe  a  building  and,  in  addi- 
tion, the  service  therein  conducted,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  possibilities  of  fallacy  in  argument  are  sufficiently 
great  to  make  a  logican  feel  dizzy.24 

Limitations  of  time  and  space  forbid  specific  obser- 
vations respecting  the  study  of  the  many  other  appre- 
hensions of  Christian  truth  which  receive  varying 
emphasis  by  the  several  communions.  I  regret  that 
a  public  occasion  such  as  this  is  not  the  time  to  open 
my  heart  to  fellow  disciples  of  different  communions 
for  the  purpose  of  letting  them  see  what  at  my  best 
moments  the  Eucharist  can  mean  to  me.  As  to  all 
of  those  varying  apprehensions  it  is  important  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  things  themselves  and  the  names 
of  things.  The  situation  is  complex  enough  but  it 
can  be  made  well-nigh  hopeless  by  attributing  to  the 

23  See  Cardinal  Mercier's  address  "Towards  Unity,"  The 
Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  II.,  p.  27. 

24 1,  of  course,  recognize  that  the  different  conceptions  outlined 
above  have  not,  historically,  emerged  in  the  order  of  my  state- 
ment. Nor  have  I  tried  to  specify  them  in  an  order  of  import- 
ance or  excellence.  I  have  taken  the  terms  as  they  are  now  used 
and  I  have  treated  them  like  a  nest  of  boxes,  proceeding  from  the 
outside  inward. 


166  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

other  man  our  own  hastily  formed  conceptions  of 
what  he  believes.  I  frankly  concede  the  labyrinth; 
but  something  very  like  a  guiding  thread  will  be  in 
the  hand  of  the  man  who  has  really  given  himself  to 
Our  Lord. 

In  regard  to  this  complex  situation  I  have  a  few 
suggestions  to  make  to  the  preacher  of  unity. 

The  first  is  to  be  cheerful  and  good  tempered.25 
When  the  several  phases  of  the  subject  are  studied 
and  are  considered  sympathetically,  there  is  much, 
very  much,  that  is  hopeful.  The  principal  obstacle  in 
the  path  of  unity  is  a  perverse  refusal  to  recognize 
differences  of  apprehension  as  facts  to  be  reckoned 
with  rather  than  as  follies  to  be  condemned.  In  the 
presence  of  an  honest  attempt  of  earnest  souls  to  solve 
problems  which  perplex  them,  other  men  should 
reverently  take  their  hats  off.  If  a  disciple  is  moved 
to  point  out  what  he  esteems  to  be  weaknesses  in  the 
solution,  he  should  make  his  reply  as  if  in  the  presence 
of  Our  Lord.  Flippancy  and  attempts  to  ridicule 
under  such  circumstances  are  to  be  unsparingly  con- 
demned. The  volume  called  Foundations,  published 
not  long  ago  in  England,  is  an  example  of  such  an 
honest  effort  at  solution  as  I  have  in  mind.  The  reply 
to  it  called  Some  Loose  Stones  is  in  places  character- 
ized by  a  spirit  which  its  author  no  doubt  already 
regrets. 

My  second  suggestion  is  to  try  to  detect  the  spirit- 

25  An  admirable  temper  is  displayed  by  von  Hiigel  in  his 
appreciation  of  Troeltsch.  The  Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  II., 
p.  71. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  167 

ual  dangers  to  which  one's  own  apprehension  of  truth 
is  particularly  subject.  Scolding  the  man  in  the  pew 
because  other  men  stay  outside  the  building  does  less 
harm  than  commending  the  congregation  for  being 
what  they  are  and  rehearsing  to  them  the  short- 
comings of  those  who  are  different.  I  wish  that  it 
were  possible  for  all  Episcopalians  of  my  stamp  to 
have  the  wonderful  experience  of  Friends'  Meeting 
and  for  a  Methodist  brother  to  hear  Mass  quietly  said 
in  a  small  chapel  by  a  really  devout  priest.  It  would 
be  a  fine  thing  if  it  were  the  custom  of  devout  and 
loyal  scholars  of  one  communion  to  publish  sympa- 
thetic and  intelligent  appreciations  of  that  which  is 
esteemed  vital  by  another  communion.  It  is  hard  to 
overestimate  the  beneficent  effect  on  international 
relations  of  such  a  book  as  Bryce's  American  Com- 
monwealth or  of  President  Lowell's  Government  of 
England. 

My  third  suggestion  is  to  avoid  formulating 
schemes  of  unity  and  to  be  wary  about  arrangements 
with  well-meaning  but  impetuous  ministers  who  are 
often  ready  to  take  some  action  which  is  incompre- 
hensible to  the  majority  of  disciples  in  their  own  com- 
munion. Such  steps  are  apt  in  the  end  to  lead  no- 
where. The  spirit  to  be  encouraged  is  rather  the 
spirit  of  private  conference  in  small  groups  in  which 
each  disciple  honestly  tries  to  grasp  the  inmost  mean- 
ing of  what  another  disciple  frankly  confesses  to  be 
of  vital  importance  to  him.  In  determining  the  com- 
position of  such  a  conference  the  question  must  be 
faced  whether  it  shall  include  both  those  who  are  and 


168  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

those  who  are  not  interested  in  the  inquiry,  "What 
manner  of  man  is  this  ?"  If  men  of  both  types  attend, 
obviously  there  will  be  only  two  questions  to  confer 
about — namely,  whether  the  inquiry  ought  to  be 
made  at  all,  and,  if  so,  how  it  ought  to  be  answered. 
I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  those  of  us  who 
confess  the  Deity  of  Christ  will  sufficiently  under- 
stand one  another  to  make  a  conference  worth  while 
with  our  brethren  who  do  not  make  that  confession. 
At  present,  however,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  shall  be 
wise  if  we  study  the  variations  which  have  proved  to 
be  consequent  upon  our  fundamental  hypothesis, 
instead  of  confusing  these  by  a  simultaneous  con- 
sideration of  the  validity  of  that  hypothesis  itself. 
This  is  the  theory  upon  which  rests  the  movement  for 
a  World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order  and  it  seems 
to  me  to  be  sound.  Inevitably,  of  course,  a  call  for 
conference  to  those  only  who  confess  Our  Lord's 
Deity  is  esteemed  by  others  to  be  unwise  and  unloving. 
From  their  point  of  view  it  is  an  unworthy  attempt  to 
intellectualize  Christ.26  It  is  perhaps  too  much  to 
expect  that  our  brethren  should  acquiesce  in  the  pro- 
priety of  restricting  the  area  of  conference  in  this 
particular  way;  but  they  should  remember  that  what 
we  are  doing  does  not  seem  in  our  eyes  to  be  as  un- 
reasonable as  they  esteem  it.  Referring  generally  to 
differences  of  apprehension,  I  suggest  that  a  convic- 
tion of  my  own  Tightness  does  not  justify  me  in 
assuming  that  my  brother  is  perverse  in  his  refusal  to 

26  The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World,  p.  204. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  169 

admit  himself  wrong.  Each  of  us  may  be  emphasiz- 
ing an  aspect  of  the  matter  which  the  other  fails  to 
take  into  account.  It  is  said,  I  believe,  that  to  the 
scientist  there  is  nothing  so  tragic  on  earth  as  the 
sight  of  a  fat  man  eating  a  potato.  But  when  he  is 
actually  eating  it,  the  time  is  not  propitious  for  trying 
to  modify  his  menu.  Moreover,  fat  men  are  usually 
good  fellows,  and  I  hope  the  present  crusade  against 
obesity  will  not  make  of  them  an  extinct  race. 

My  fourth  suggestion  is  that  while  the  men  of  this 
generation  may  be  led  to  a  better  understanding  of 
the  views  of  separated  brethren,  they  are  in  most 
instances  likely  to  die  without  modifying  their  own. 
In  other  words,  the  primary  aim  of  the  preacher  of 
unity  is  to  compete  for  the  allegiance  of  the  next 
generation.  Many  men  of  profound  convictions  find 
themselves  unable  to  transmit  their  convictions  to 
their  children.  Co-operation  in  Christian  work,  the 
passing  of  the  spirit  of  aloofness,  the  steady  applica- 
tion of  the  conference  method — these  are  the  agencies 
by  which  the  Christian  world  can  best  be  prepared  for 
the  revelation  of  God's  plan  for  the  unity  of  His 
people.  Noisy  demands  for  what  are  called  prompt 
and  practical  measures  of  union  seem  to  me  to  indi- 
cate a  failure  to  appreciate  the  difficulties  inherent 
in  the  situation.  On  the  other  hand  the  difficulties 
should  not  be  allowed  to  obscure  the  vision  of  unity  or 
to  deter  us  from  work  and  prayer. 

My  fifth  and  final  suggestion  is  that  the  preacher 
of  unity,  while  not  shunning  to  declare  to  his  people 
the  whole  counsel  of  God,  should  be  careful  not  to 


170  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

attempt  a  disclosure  of  what  has  not  yet  been  revealed 
to  him.  One  of  the  things  one  admires  about  Saint 
Paul  is  his  effort  to  distinguish  between  what  is  surely 
the  mind  of  God  and  what  is  merely  a  private  opinion 
of  his  own.  As  far  as  religious  differences  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  a  safe  assumption  that  if  the  view  of 
truth  taken  by  another  communion  seems  absurd  to 
you,  you  do  not  really  understand  it.  I  have  often 
heard  preachers  dispose  summarily  of  entire  religious 
movements  by  first  describing  them  in  a  way  which 
the  brethren  concerned  would  promptly  have  repudi- 
ated. I  assume  that  the  speakers  in  each  case  were 
presenting  views  which  they  held  in  good  faith:  but 
their  common-sense  should  have  told  them  that  no 
group  of  people  could  have  been  organized  and  long 
maintained  on  the  basis  of  an  obvious  absurdity. 

We  should  remember  also  that  the  other  man's 
belief  does  not  seem  nearly  so  complicated  to  him  as 
it  may  to  us.  This  is  something  that  Professor 
Royce  seems  to  have  overlooked  in  his  interesting 
book,  The  Problem  of  Christianity.  After  some 
eight  hundred  pages  of  exposition  of  the  religion  of 
loyalty,  he  suggests  two  practical  maxims.  The  first 
is,  that  we  should  simplify  our  traditional  Christol- 
ogy,  in  order  to  enrich  its  spirit.  We  shall  do  this,  as 
I  understand  him,  if  we  assume  that  all  the  faithful 
are  one  in  their  loyalty  to  the  Universal  Community, 
and  further  assume  that  the  name  of  Christ  is  a  sym- 
bol for  this  loyal  spirit.  Having  attained  this  faith, 
the  second  practical  maxim  is  to  hold  fast  by  it.  "Let 
your  Christology  be  the  practical  acknowledgment 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  171 

of  the  Spirit  of  the  Universal  and  Beloved  Commu- 
nity."2 Now  I  conceive  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Person. 
Therefore  loyalty  to  Him  has  for  me  a  very  definite 
meaning.  The  conception  seems  to  me  simple 
enough.  When  I  serve  even  the  least  of  my  brethren 
I  do  it  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  the  Master 
Who  lived  and  died  for  us  both.  When  for  my  Christ 
Professor  Royce  suggests  the  substitution  of  the 
totality  of  the  faithful,  he  is  doing  something  which 
I  might  recognize  as  a  simplification  if  I  understood 
him  better,  but,  as  it  is,  he  is  merely  creating  new  dif- 
ficulties for  me.  To  my  mind,  untrained  as  it  is  in 
metaphysics,  he  seems  to  be  presenting  the  so-called 
Religion  of  Humanity  in  different  language  and  with 
a  different  distribution  of  capital  initial  letters.  I 
am,  therefore,  in  a  position  to  appreciate  a  remark 
which  I  think  Mr.  Balfour  makes  in  one  of  his  essays 
to  the  effect  that  most  people  prefer  a  difficulty  which 
they  do  not  see  to  an  explanation  which  they  cannot 
understand. 

I  should  like  to  end  my  lecture  by  making  to  the 
Yale  School  of  Religion  a  specific  application  of  my 
random  suggestions.  It  is  especially  important  to 
determine  the  attitude  which  a  training  school  for 
prophets  should  occupy  toward  the  several  varieties 
of  religious  experience.  If  we  are  to  preach  we  must 
have  a  message.  A  message  implies  definite  convic- 
tions. Let  no  one  suppose  me  to  be  advocating  that 
form  of  accommodation  which  leads  a  man  to  con- 


27 


Vol.  II.,  p.  428. 


172  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

elude  that  his  belief  is  erroneous  merely  because  his 
neighbor  does  not  share  it.  On  the  contrary, 
you  have  found  me  unblushingly  frank  in  my 
declaration  of  fixed  belief.  You  will  have  dis- 
covered ere  this  that  dogma  has  no  terrors  for  me. 
But  I  hope  that  I  am  profoundly  convinced  of  the 
wholeness  of  truth  and  of  the  fragmentary  character 
of  much  that  we  are  apt  to  announce  as  the  sum  of  the 
whole  matter.  In  keeping  with  this  conviction  my 
plea  is  that  this  school  should  be  hospitable  to  every 
form  of  religious  experience  which  in  daily  life  is 
seen  to  bear  the  fruits  of  righteousness.  In  the  past 
each  Christian  group  has  spent  too  much  effort  in  com- 
bating the  errors  of  other  groups.  It  would  be  amus- 
ing were  it  less  pathetic  to  note  the  labored  explana- 
tions given  by  each  group  of  the  striking  coexistence 
among  their  neighbors  of  theological  error  and  saint- 
liness  of  life.  When  Our  Lord  said  things  He  meant 
them.  When  He  declared  that  we  are  to  be  known 
by  our  fruits  He  meant  exactly  that  thing  and  noth- 
ing else.  When  we  see  a  company  of  disciples  with 
lofty  ideals  of  conduct,  striving  at  least  as  hard  as  we 
to  live  in  communion  with  God,  this  is  notice  to  us 
that  there  is  something  vital  in  their  apprehension 
of  truth.  It  forthwith  becomes  our  duty  to  ascertain 
what  is  the  source  of  their  inspiration.  We  must  try 
to  discover  in  their  distinctive  beliefs  and  practices 
that  which  they  themselves  have  found  there.  We 
must  avoid  the  common  mistake  of  condemning  a 
spring  merely  because  our  water  supply  has  a  dif- 
ferent source. 


THE  VISION  OF  UNITY  173 

The  substance  of  my  plea  is,  after  all,  nothing  more 
striking  than  this — that  each  of  us  should  consider 
not  only  his  own  religious -experiences  but  also  the 
religious  experiences  of  others.  No  one  who  has 
experienced  the  joy  and  peace  of  a  worthy  sacra- 
mental communion  will  be  a  whit  the  weaker  in  his 
conviction  merely  because  he  learns  to  appreciate  the 
holy  calm  that  is  within  the  reach  of  a  devout  Quaker. 
No  one  who  without  external  assistance  is  able  to  find 
the  way  to  God's  heart  need  be  chilled  by  a  contem- 
plation of  the  elaborate  ceremonial  through  which  to 
many  a  devout  soul  God  speaks  with  audible  voice. 

The  fact  is  that  God's  self-revelations  in  the  domain 
of  belief  and  worship  are  as  manifold  as  in  the  sphere 
of  physical  nature.  A  school  of  the  prophets  should 
be  a  place  where  the  ear  and  the  eye  are  trained  to 
detect  His  voice  and  presence  wherever  and  however 
He  is  making  Himself  known  to  any  of  His  loyal 
children.  We  Christians  of  the  several  organized 
communions  have  a  vast  amount  to  learn  from  one 
another.  It  is  to  me  inconceivable  that  Our  Lord 
should  so  long  have  accepted  the  loyal  service  of  so 
many  scattered  disciples  unless  in  the  end  there  is  to 
be  a  glorious  fusion  of  all  the  many-colored  beams  of 
belief  into  that  ray  of  pure  white  light  which  beats 
upon  the  Throne. 


VI 

THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT 

As  I  review  the  preceding  lectures,  and  especially 
the  fifth,  a  cloud  of  just  criticism  sweeps  over  my  sky. 
If  any  one  cause  for  dissatisfaction  depresses  me 
more  than  another  it  is  a  realization  that  what  I  have 
written  is  on  the  whole  unconvincing.  It  has  been 
prepared,  I  hope,  in  good  spirit.  It  has  been  launched 
with  prayer.  My  aim  has  been  to  take  into  account 
all  the  phases  of  revelation  of  which  I  have  knowledge 
and  to  urge  the  quest  of  those  which  I  have  not  yet 
apprehended.  But,  after  all,  is  it  not  the  advocate 
who  makes  the  effective  appeal?  Is  it  not,  in  the 
lawyer,  a  weakness  to  see  clearly  other  aspects  of  the 
case  than  those  which  favor  his  own  client?  Are  not 
the  really  interesting  utterances  from  the  bench  those 
in  which  the  judge  frankly  espouses  the  cause  of  one 
litigant  and  proceeds  to  flay  the  other  alive?  And  is 
not  an  opinion  conceived  and  expressed  in  the  judi- 
cial spirit  a  document  which  it  is  hard  to  read  ? 

As  respects  the  lawyer  and  the  judge  I  leave  these 
questions  unanswered.  But  I  note  that  in  von 
Hugel's  opinion  the  subtlest  and  greatest  difficulty 
that  besets  eirenic  endeavors  is  this — that  a  certain 
flatness  and  unpersuasiveness  always  tends  sooner  or 
later  to  pervade  whatsoever  is  readily  optimistic,  stu- 
diously pacific,  and  free  from  all  acute  stress  and 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  175 

strain.1  "Thus  even  Leibniz,"  he  observes,  "that  rich, 
all-harmonizing  mind,  is  he  as  moving  as  Tertullian, 
that  vehement,  one-sided  genius,  or  even  as  some  of 
Leibniz's  own  contemporaries,  smaller  and  less  bal- 
anced, but  more  concentrated  and  instructive  than 
that  serene  negotiator,  of  the  large  wig,  amidst  the 
pontiffs  and  princesses  of  his  day?"2  Having  raised 
this  question  he  thus  states  his  own  most  interesting 
conclusion:  "Probably  the  best  antidote  to  any  such 
danger  is  the  close  study,  not  directly  of  the  contrasts 
and  conflicts  between  the  already  made  theologies  and 
cults  of  the  several  churches  and  sects,  but  of  the  reli- 
gious life,  or  at  least  of  its  philosophy,  still  now  in 
the  making — of  the  struggles  and  successes  operative, 
at  this  very  moment,  within  some  exceptionally  capa- 
cious mind  and  deeply  spiritual  soul.  At  least,  for 
myself,  I  can  be  fully  happy  in  Eirenics  only  in  some 
such  entirely  unofficial  and  unfinal,  slow,  round-about, 
far  back  and  far  onward  looking  way."3 

It  is  with  some  such  feeling  as  this  that  I  turn  to  a 
consideration  of  the  religious  life  of  the  man  in  the 
pulpit.  And  yet,  if  I  were  at  all  timid,  I  should  find 
this  topic  rather  appalling.  It  is  possible  that  sug- 
gestions from  a  man  in  the  pew  might  prove  to  be  of 
value  to  the  minister  in  his  contacts,  in  his  teaching 

1  The  Constructive  Quarterly,  Vol.  II.,  p.  68. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Ibid:  "On  the  Specific  Genius  and  Capacities  of  Christianity, 
studied  in  connection  with  the  Works  of  Prof.  Ernst  Troeltsch" ; 
p.  68. 


176  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

and  in  his  preaching.  It  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  a  voice  from  the  crowd  can  help  the  man  in 
the  pulpit  to  a  nobler  life.  It  encourages  me,  how- 
ever, to  recall  that  I  have  been  in  my  time  the  target 
for  a  good  many  sermons.  I  ought  at  least  to  be  able 
to  gather  up  and  return  the  shafts  that  have  been 
lodged  in  me.  One  cannot  always  remain  as  passive 
and  as  serenely  content  with  the  target  life  as  by  the 
old  masters  Saint  Sebastian  is  made  to  appear.  At 
all  events  I  feel  bound  to  do  what  I  can,  because  this 
is  not  the  least  important  subject  of  all.  The  message 
invariably  comes  to  the  man  in  the  pew  tinged  with 
the  personality  of  the  man  in  the  pulpit. 

When  it  comes  to  a  consideration  of  the  Christian 
life  it  should  be  possible  to  forget  the  distance  be- 
tween the  pulpit  and  the  pew.  Differences  of  func- 
tion become  merged  in  discipleship.  The  minister  is 
lost  in  the  man.  The  crowd  has  surged  forward  and 
the  preacher  finds  himself  in  its  midst.  It  is  now  one 
man  in  the  crowd  that  is  talking  to  another.  Accord- 
ingly, almost  everything  that  I  shall  say  in  this  lecture 
might  just  as  well  be  addressed  by  one  layman  to 
another,  except  that  I  shall  endeavor  to  indicate  its 
specific  application  to  preaching. 

One  wishes  that  it  were  more  the  custom  for  men  to 
talk  frankly  with  one  another  about  religion.  The 
rehearsal  of  one's  personal  religious  experiences  is  a 
dangerous  habit  and  is  to  be  checked  rather  than  en- 
couraged. But  the  place  of  religion  in  life,  the  nature 
and  method  of  revelation,  the  hope  of  immortality  and 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  177 

its  bearing  upon  conduct — these  are  topics  of  extraor- 
dinary interest,  and  intelligent  men  would  do  well  to 
recognize  the  fact.  Discussions  of  philosophic,  socio- 
logical and  economic  theories  are  common.  Men  con- 
stantly "talk  politics."  But  the  deeper  and  more 
permanent  interests  of  mankind  are  generally  neg- 
lected. Several  consequences  ensue.  One  is  that  we 
have  come  to  esteem  it  a  badge  of  virility  to  suppress 
all  religious  manifestations.  We  fail  to  realize  that 
to  stifle  religion  is  quite  as  dangerous  as  to  feign  it. 
Another  consequence  is  that  by  so  doing  men  limit 
their  influence  for  good  by  refusing  to  witness  to  the 
faith  that  is  in  them.  The  spread  of  the  Kingdom  is 
hindered  because  friend  will  not  talk  to  friend  about 
its  coming.  Many  and  many  a  boy,  one  may  surmise, 
has  gone  wrong  because  his  father  had  lost  or  had 
failed  to  acquire  the  capacity  to  express  himself  on 
great  subjects. 

A  third  consequence  of  this  reticence  is  that  falla- 
cious utterances  about  religion  gain  wide  acceptance 
because  men  are  unwilling  or  unprepared  to  challenge 
them.  Take,  for  example,  many  of  the  destructive 
comments  upon  the  church  and  organized  Christianity 
which  are  assigned  by  the  man  in  the  crowd  as  reasons 
for  his  indifference  to  things  religious.  In  a  com- 
munity accustomed  to  use  its  mind  concerning  the 
deep  things  of  life  such  fallacies  would  be  torpedoed 
before  their  voyage  was  fairly  begun.  The  same  man 
who  remarks  sententiously,  "I  believe  in  religion  but 
not  in  a  church,"  would  be  quick  to  point  out  the  un- 


178  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

answerable  objections  to  anarchy  as  a  solution  of  gov- 
ernmental problems.4  The  fact  is  that  the  noise  of 
ecclesiastical  machinery  may  easily  drown  the  still, 
small  voice  of  the  Spirit,  just  as  an  abuse  of  organiza- 
tion may  readily  destroy  the  dignity  of  labor.  The 
man  who  selfishly  substitutes  machinery  for  power  is 
an  enemy  of  the  good,  whether  he  be  prelate  or  labor 
leader.  But  to  quote  the  opinion  of  the  church  enter- 
tained by  one  whose  business  is  agitation  is  as  little 
enlightening  as  it  would  be  to  state  the  views  of  the 
German  Crown  Prince  on  the  subject  of  disarma- 
ment.5 The  man  who  is  ready  to  cheer  an  exhorta- 
tion, to  discard  dogma  and  strive  to  spiritualize 
human  society  would  at  least  ask  for  time  to  consider 
a  proposition  to  wipe  out  the  Constitution  and  the 
Supreme  Court  and  instead  to  influence  people  to  be 
just.  "It  doesn't  make  any  difference  what  you  be- 
lieve if  your  conduct  is  good"  is  a  phrase  often  used 

4  I  am  using  the  term  anarchy  in  its  technical  rather  than  in 
its  popular  meaning.     We  who  take  the  validity  of  our  govern- 
mental ideas   for  granted  are  apt  to   forget  that  an  argument 
which  is  at  least  plausible  can  be  made  in  favor  of  Prudhon's 
scientific  anarchy.     I  am  not  aware  of  any  valid  answer  to  that 
argument  which  does  not,  mutatis   mutandis,  meet  and  nullify 
destructive  criticism  of  organized  Christianity. 

5  See  The  Christian  Life  in  the  Modern  World,  p.  216.     "My 
associates/'  the  President  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
has  stated,  "have  come  to  look  upon  the  church  and  the  ministry 
as  the  apologists  and  defenders  of  the  wrong  committed  against 
the  interests  of  the  people." 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  179 

by  men  who  are  well  aware  that  electric  cars  will  not 
run  unless  the  power  house  is  in  order.6  One  of  the 
values  consequent  upon  Sunday's  "campaigns"  is  that 
at  least  for  the  time  being  they  make  religion  the  topic 
of  the  town.  It  is  not  perhaps  important  that  num- 
bers of  worldly  people  are  led  by  him  to  resume  their 
discarded  reverence  in  order  to  share  with  some  really 
devout  persons  the  experience  of  being  shocked.  Nor 
can  one  estimate  in  terms  of  persistence  the  signifi- 
cance of  his  conversions  any  more  than  one  can 
determine  what  percentage  of  persons  confirmed  con- 
tinue to  be  worthy  communicants.  But  apart  from 
the  fact  that  multitudes  of  lives  are  transformed  by 
his  influence  is  the  observed  circumstance  that  the  way 
is  opened  for  the  religious  approach  of  one  man  in  the 
crowd  to  another.  It  becomes  possible  to  discuss  the 

*  "Conduct,  according  to  Matthew  Arnold,  is  three  parts  of 
life.  We  may  admit  that  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life,  if  we 
do  not  forget  that  the  remaining  fourth  part  of  life  is  not  to  be 
ignored.  Conduct  is  the  three-fourths  of  life,  as  the  seen  por- 
tion of  a  growing  tree  may  be  three-fourths  of  the  whole,  but 
the  unseen  portion,  which  may  be  but  one-quarter  of  the  whole, 
contains  the  root.  Conduct  may  be  three-fourths  of  life,  but  the 
life-force  from  which  conduct  springs  is  of  more  moment  than 
conduct  itself.  The  unseen  part  of  life  contains  the  springs  of 
action,  the  motives,  the  hopes,  the  fears,  the  ambitions,  the  aims; 
the  unseen  portion  contains  the  root  from  which  the  whole  growth 
takes  its  health  and  strength;  the  unseen  portion  is  the  generat- 
ing station  in  which  power  is  translated  into  movement  or  light." 
The  Witness  to  the  Influence  of  Christ,  by  The  Rt.  Rev.  William 
Boyd  Carpenter,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Ripon;  page  35. 


180  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

subject  of  the  religious  life  as  naturally  as  any  other 
topic  of  conversation.7 

In  a  social  state  in  which  religion  is  generally  con- 
ceived to  be  the  specialty  of  the  serious  few,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  talk  on  religious  subjects  without  self- 
consciousness.  The  speaker  is  presenting  ideals  which 
he  is  far  from  achieving  and  yet  by  speaking  of  them 
at  all  he  seems  to  be  patronizing  the  other  man.  I 
suppose  there  is  no  surer  way  in  which  to  guard 
against  the  appearance  of  patronizing  than  to  become 
really  humble;  and  humility  can  most  certainly  be 
attained  by  visualizing  the  distant  goal  toward  which 
the  Christian  is  striving.  I  appeal  to  the  experience 
of  every  athlete  who  has  been  a  distance  runner  when 
I  assert  that  no  man  is  apt  to  think  of  himself  more 
highly  than  he  ought  to  think  at  the  moment  when 
the  race  has  punished  him,  when  the  pace  of  the  men 
ahead  is  unbroken  and  when  the  finish-line  seems  as 
distant  as  the  equator.  The  more  one  enters  into  the 

7  "I  think  one  great  need  of  our  pulpit  ministrations  is  natural- 
ness; by  which  I  mean  an  exact  recognition  of  the  facts  of  our 
daily  life.  The  phrase,  'the  dignity  of  the  pulpit,'  has  given  a 
fatally  artificial  character  to  the  mass  of  sermons.  Mr.  Spurgeon 
and  his  vulgar  slang  is  a  violent  reaction  from  the  cold  unfelt 
conventionalities  with  which  men  have  grown  so  familiar ;  and  his 
success  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  recognizes  the  men  and  women 
before  him  as  flesh  and  blood — sinning,  suffering,  tempted,  fail- 
ing, struggling,  rising.  Like  all  extreme  reactions,  it  shocks  a 
great  many  by  its  levity,  its  irreverence  and  its  vulgarity ;  but  in 
this  direction  must  come  our  pulpit  reform." 

From  a  letter  quoted  by  the  editor  of  the  complete  edition  of 
Robertson's  Sermons,  preface,  p.  viii. ;  Harper  &  Brothers. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  181 

mind  of  Saint  Paul  the  more  satisfaction  is  to  be 
gained  from  the  record  of  his  spiritual  self -interpre- 
tation. Some  people  think  of  him  as  the  apostle  of  a 
weak  and  slavish  submission  to  authority.  Others 
think  of  him  as  the  self-poised  proclaimer  of  his  own 
achievements.  Now  and  then  some  one  forms  a 
blurred  mental  picture  which  invests  him  with  both  of 
these  inconsistent  characteristics.8  The  real  Saint 
Paul,  I  venture  to  think,  was  one  whose  consciousness 
of  spiritual  power  was  kept  in  wholesome  balance  by 
his  vivid  apprehension  of  his  distance  from  the  goal. 
Such  progress  as  he  had  made  was  a  fact.  He  might 
accordingly  even  enumerate  the  things  he  had  done 
in  his  Master's  cause.  But  he  saw  all  in  just  perspec- 
tive. He  was  even  able  to  forget  what  was  past  in 
the  intensity  of  his  effort  to  cross  the  line.9  "Reach- 
ing forth,"  he  says.  But  the  word  which  the  King 
James  Version  translates  "reaching"  is  really  in  more 
perfect  keeping  with  his  simile  of  a  race.  The  Vul- 
gate says  "extendens" ;  and  this  is  the  precise  equiva- 
lent of  what  the  modern  runner  means  when  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  "extended."  The  goal,  too,  is  distinctly 
seen.  The  runner  is  pressing  toward  a  mark  and  he 
is  striving  for  a  prize :  the  prize  is  the  visualization  of 

8  See,  for  example,  Bouck  White:  The  Call  of  the  Carpenter, 
pp.  226  et  seq. 

1  "Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended:  but  this 
one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which  are  behind,  and 
reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press  toward 
the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Philippians,  iii.,  13,  14. 


182  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

the  heavenward  call.  It  is  from  God  that  the  call 
comes — from  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  All 
the  terms  used  are  epexegetical.  The  goal,  the  prize, 
the  call,  yes — God  Himself — all  are  summed  up  in 
Christ.  The  reason  that  Saint  Paul  was  without  con- 
ceit and  without  self-consciousness  was  this — that  he 
always  kept  his  eyes  riveted  on  Our  Lord. 

The  preacher  may  perhaps  gain  something  from 
these  trite  observations.  He  must  not  be  a  self- 
effacing  being,  with  a  weak  and  watery  personality. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  must  guard  himself  with 
anxious  care  against  complacency — which  is  another 
name  for  arrested  spiritual  development.  He  must 
build  himself  up  and  rejoice  in  the  strength  which  he 
acquires;  but  he  must  always  be  measuring  himself 
with  Our  Lord.  The  disparity  between  man  and 
Master  may  be  trusted  to  keep  the  man  humble. 

If  the  man  in  the  pulpit  keeps  himself  really  hum- 
ble, the  "holier  than  thou"  mental  attitude  is  not 
likely  to  be  charged  against  him.  What  he  says  upon 
religious  subjects  will  be  accepted  in  the  spirit  in 
which  he  utters  it.  When  once  this  fact  is  recognized 
the  conquest  of  self -consciousness  becomes  less  diffi- 
cult. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  that  the  preacher  should 
be  heard  indulgently  and  that,  having  conquered  self- 
consciousness,  he  should  be  able  to  put  his  whole  self 
into  what  he  says.  That  self  thus  injected  must  be 
weighty  enough  to  make  his  words  effective.  This 
means,  among  other  things,  that  the  preacher's  posi- 
tion in  the  community  should  be  one  in  all  respects 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  183 

satisfactory  to  a  man  of  spirit.  Unless  the  minister 
is  confident  of  his  own  position  and  can  meet  his 
people  on  terms  at  least  of  equality  the  danger  will 
not  be  so  much  that  he  will  develop  a  tendency  to 
patronize  them  as  that  they  actually  will  patronize 
him. 

It  is  becoming  increasingly  important  that  the 
minister  should  protect  himself  against  any  such  con- 
tingency. This  he  should  do  not  by  pleading  his 
sacred  office  but  by  building  up  an  unconquerable 
personality  of  his  own.  Such  edification  as  this  is 
within  the  power  of  any  disciple  who  earnestly  studies 
to  be  Christlike.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that 
the  material  conditions  of  the  minister's  life  are  not 
such  as  tend  to  make  him  independent  and  self- 
respecting.  In  his  student  days  pressure  is  brought 
upon  him  to  enter  the  ministry.  He  is  encouraged  to 
believe  that  he  is  making  a  sacrifice  in  so  doing.  There 
is  subtle  suggestion  that  from  that  time  onward  the 
Christian  community  owes  him  a  living.  Many  semi- 
naries give  him  his  tuition  free.  He  is  doing  nothing 
which  he  thinks  unworthy,  if,  during  his  seminary 
days,  he  seeks  pecuniary  assistance  from  church-going 
people.  After  ordination  he  is  treated  indulgently  by 
all  the  community  except  those  whom  he  is  directly 
serving.  His  own  people  usually  pay  him  a  wage 
which  is  fair  at  the  outset  but  tends  to  become  more 
and  more  inadequate  as  his  responsibilities  and  expe- 
rience increase  without  any  corresponding  growth  in 
his  salary.  The  rest  of  the  community  usually  allow 
him  a  special  rate  when  he  travels  and  a  discount 


184  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

when  he  buys.  He  is  to  a  great  extent  dispensed  from 
the  necessity  of  giving  tips  and  from  submitting  to 
the  other  petty  exactions  under  which  the  rest  of  us 
are  patient.  The  exact  cash  equivalent  of  these 
indulgences  is  usually  unknown  by  anybody  but  the 
minister.  This  circumstance  is  often  relied  upon  by 
penurious  vestries  and  trustees  as  an  excuse  for  keep- 
ing the  clerical  stipend  near  the  vanishing  point. 

Now  it  may  well  be  that  I  am  not  qualified  to 
express  an  opinion  respecting  the  wisdom  of  treating 
the  clergy  in  the  way  just  described.  Of  one  thing  I 
am  sure,  however,  that  he  is  a  far-sighted  young  man 
who  declines  to  allow  himself  to  be  thus  treated.  If, 
in  the  first  place,  a  man  really  has  his  eyes  fixed  upon 
Our  Lord,  he  is  not  likely  to  think  in  terms  of  sacri- 
fice of  the  dedication  of  himself  to  the  Master's  ser- 
vice. In  the  next  place,  the  ministers  I  have  known 
who  would  have  made  their  mark  in  another  profes- 
sion have  always  been  men  who  gloried  in  their  high 
calling  and  had  no  regrets  about  choosing  it.  The 
minister  who  tells  you  of  the  figure  he  would  have  cut 
in  law,  medicine  or  public  life,  is  generally  a  man  who 
would  surely  have  gone  down  to  defeat  in  the  fierce 
struggle  for  professional  success.  Another  fact  that 
the  student  of  divinity  should  bear  in  mind  is  that 
the  man  in  the  pew  is  usually  ready  to  foreclose  any 
mortgage  which  the  minister  has  placed  on  his  inde- 
pendence. Even  if  this  tendency  does  not  find  any 
more  definite  expression,  it  at  least  results  in  an  un- 
pleasant assumption  that  ministers  are  a  dependent 
class  and  that  their  utterances  are  not  to  be  taken  too 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  185 

seriously.  This  state  of  mind  has  subtle  and  poison- 
ous consequences.  One  of  them  is  that  the  word 
spoken  from  the  pulpit  carries  less  conviction  than 
the  same  word  spoken  by  a  layman.  It  is  quite  true 
that  in  the  last  analysis  the  responsibility  for  this  con- 
dition of  things,  where  it  exists,  must  rest  upon  the 
layman.  The  laity  have  not  dealt  fairly  with  the 
clergy.  The  standard  of  clerical  compensation  is  too 
low.  The  duty  of  establishing  adequate  and  scien- 
tifically devised  pension  funds  for  ministers  has  been 
too  generally  ignored.  But  the  minister  will  find 
little  satisfaction  in  merely  fixing  the  responsibility 
for  evils  that  have  impaired  his  usefulness.  He  will 
prefer  to  be  warned  of  them  in  advance,  in  order  to 
make  whatever  sacrifice  is  necessary  to  avoid  them. 
It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  no  middle  course  for  the 
minister  to  follow.  Either  he  should  take  a  vow  of 
poverty  and  live  what  is  technically  called  the  "regu- 
lar" life  or  he  should  be  economically  independent 
and  stand  on  his  own  feet. 

If  I  may  be  permitted,  upon  a  cognate  subject,  to 
make  a  practical  suggestion  to  the  young  minister,  it 
is  this:  that  he  always  insist  upon  sharing  with  his 
people,  in  proportion  to  his  means,  all  the  financial 
responsibilities  of  his  parish.  Multitudes  of  ministers 
do  this;  but  many  do  not.  No  one  who  does  it  will 
ever  have  cause  for  regret. 

In  this  informal  talk  between  two  men — albeit  one 
is  in  the  pulpit  and  the  other  in  the  pew — the  latter  is 
merely  asserting  what  in  these  lectures  he  has  so  often 
implied,  that  back  of  the  sermon  lies  the  preacher's 


186  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

whole  life.  His  unconscious  preparation  is  not  less 
important  than  his  specific  striving  to  formulate  his 
message.  No  detail  of  his  life  is  too  small  to  be 
neglected;  for,  as  Bergson  observes,  "the  most  com- 
mon-place events  have  their  importance  in  a  life- 
story."1  I  do  not  mean  to  advocate  such  circum- 
spection as  makes  a  man  walk  through  life  as  if  he 
were  traversing  a  glacier;  all  freedom  of  action  gone, 
wary  about  every  step,  and  fearing  that  if  he  ventures 
to  fall  into  a  swinging  stride  he  is  likely  to  find  himself 
in  a  crevasse.  On  the  contrary  I  am  counseling  him 
to  put  his  whole  life  and  every  part  of  it  at  God's 
disposal ;  so  that  the  man  instead  of  watching  his  step 
will  watch  his  Master;  being  ready  in  the  fullness  of 
his  faith  to  walk  fearlessly  toward  Our  Lord,  not 
merely  over  glacial  surfaces  but  even  upon  the  sea. 
A  sermon  of  power  is  an  outpouring  of  the  experi- 
ence of  a  man  who  walks  by  faith  and  not  by  sight. 
But  the  instinct  that  makes  the  mountaineer  walk  con- 
fidently where  the  tyro  would  lose  his  life  is  itself 
the  result  of  long  training.  The  preacher  must  not 
mistake  carelessness  for  confidence.  There  is  a  body 
to  be  mastered :  there  is  a  mind  to  be  stored :  there  is 
a  spirit  to  be  enriched. 

In  another  lecture11  the  voice  from  the  crowd  was 
heard  to  suggest  the  importance  of  physical  vigor. 
This  point  should  be  emphasized,  yet  not  in  such  a 
way  as  to  discourage  the  earnest  man  to  whom  so 
great  a  blessing  has  been  denied.  One  of  the  most 

10  Time  and  Free  Will  (Pogson's  Translation),  p.  187. 

11  Supra,  p.  14. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  187 

effective  and  successful  lawyers  I  have  known  was  a 
man  who  by  sheer  force  of  will  triumphed  over  phys- 
ical impediments  which  would  have  made  invalids  of 
most  men.  The  suggestion  rather  is  that  all  sons  of 
God  should  strive  (in  the  Psalmist's  phrase)  to  "grow 
up  as  the  young  plants,"12  instead  of  letting  them- 
selves go  to  seed  after  the  fashion  of  most  American 
men.  Rules  of  exercise  are  good ;  but  the  joy  of  being 
alive  is  a  thing  to  be  prized.  A  mechanical  physical 
drill  is  a  weariness.  The  capacity  to  be  happy  out  of 
doors  and,  even  in  the  city,  to  absorb  sunshine  and 
storm  alike,  is  a  capacity  which  must  not  be  lightly 
esteemed.  That  a  man  should  think  of  his  body  as  a 
vile  body  is  to  fall  in  with  a  mischievous  mistransla- 
tion.13 That  it  is  the  "body  of  our  humiliation"14  is  a 
fact;  but  it  is  so  only  in  contrast  with  the  glories  that 
shall  be  revealed  and  bestowed  upon  us.15  The  splen- 
dor of  the  human  body  is  a  fit  subject  for  wholesome 
contemplation.16 

If  the  training  of  the  preacher's  mind  were  here  to 
have  adequate  consideration  we  should  find  ourselves 
face  to  face  with  the  whole  problem  of  theological 
education.  To  deal  intelligently  with  this  subject 
requires  an  equipment  which  I  do  not  possess.  One 
suggestion  may  perhaps  be  hazarded  without  imper- 

12  Psalm,  cxliv.,  12;  Prayer  Book  Version. 
18  Philippians,  iii.,  21;  King  James  Version. 

14  R.  V. 

15  Romans,  viii.,  18. 

16  See  The  Splendor  of  the  Human  Body,  by  The  Rt.  Rev. 
Charles  H.  Brent,  D.D. 


188  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

tinence.  It  is  this — that  in  no  other  sphere  of  educa- 
tion is  there  a  greater  need  for  emphasis  upon  honest 
thinking  and  upon  the  determination  to  see  things  as 
they  are.  Precision  and  thoroughness  are  intellectual 
qualities  which  the  preacher  should  find  indispensable. 
By  honest  thinking  I  mean  a  willingness  to  admit  the 
difference  between  the  reasons  why  the  thinker  holds 
a  certain  position  and  the  arguments  which  he  ad- 
vances in  support  of  it.  The  man  in  the  crowd 
respects  conviction  and  recognizes  the  power  of  the 
non-rational  considerations  which  may  have  led  a 
speaker  to  take  a  certain  stand.  But  he  despises  the 
smart  and  shallow  style  of  argumentation  so  often 
indulged  in  by  controversial  preachers  who  accom- 
plish nothing  but  the  deepening  of  prejudice  and  the 
strengthening  of  opposition.  There  is  a  saying  of 
Leslie  Stephen  which  is  worth  remembering.  "A 
doctrine,"  said  he,17  "is  first  received  as  an  intuitive 
truth,  standing  beyond  all  need  of  demonstration; 
then  it  becomes  the  object  of  rigid  demonstration; 
afterward  the  demonstration  ceases  to  be  conclusive 
and  is  merely  probable;  and,  finally,  the  effort  is 
limited  to  demonstrating  that  there  is  no  conclusive 
reason  on  the  other  side.  In  the  later  stages  of  belief, 
the  show  of  demonstration  is  mere  bluster,  or  is  useful 
only  to  trip  up  an  antagonist." 

The  determination  to  see  things  as  they  are  seems 
to  me  to  be  of  high  importance.  Provincialism  in 
secular  life  is  injurious  enough  in  its  consequences; 

17  Quoted  by  A.  J.  Balfour:  A  Defence  of  Philosophic  Doubt. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  189 

but  the  corresponding  evil  in  the  religious  sphere  is 
one  of  far  greater  magnitude.  It  is  only  too  easy  for 
the  minister  to  shut  his  eyes  to  what  is  actually  going 
on  all  about  him  and  to  create  for  himself  an  unreal 
world  of  his  own.  It  is  equally  disastrous  whether 
he  indulges  a  dreamy  optimism  unjustified  by  effort 
and  results  or  whether  he  lapses  into  the  habit  of 
charging  his  own  inadequacy  to  the  perverseness  of 
the  men  in  the  crowd. 

Body  and  brain  must  have  their  full  share  of  atten- 
tion, but  the  man's  spiritual  culture  is,  after  all,  the 
matter  of  supreme  concern.  He  who  is  to  reveal  God 
to  man  must  himself  live  on  terms  of  friendship  with 
God.  When  I  take  up  the  life  of  some  saint,  ancient 
or  modern,  who  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  God  in 
Christ,  I  generally  find  that  his  conversion  was  attrib- 
utable to  one  of  two  kinds  of  experience.  Either,  like 
Saint  Francis,  he  succumbed  at  last  to  God's  slow 
pursuit  and  to  a  Voice  that  spoke  through  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  daily  life,  or  he  was  overpowered  by 
the  witness  of  some  single-minded  and  absolutely 
unselfish  disciple.  It  is  either  the  process  so  wonder- 
fully described  by  Francis  Thompson  in  The  Hound 
of  Heaven™  or  it  is  the  unconscious  influence  of  some 
one  who  really  lives  close  to  Our  Lord.  We  all  recog- 

Nigh  and  nigh  draws  the  chase, 

With  unperturbed  pace, 
Deliberate  speed,  majestic  instancy, 

And  past  those  noised  Feet 

A  Voice  comes  yet  more  fleet — 
"Lo!  naught  contents  thee,  who  content'st  not  Me!" 


190  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

i 

nize  that  this  is  true;  and  yet  we  continue  to  base  our 
hope  of  winning  souls  chiefly  upon  the  minister's  elo- 
quence and  his  power  to  organize  his  parish.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  admit  the  correctness  of  these  observa- 
tions. It  is  essential  to  readjust  our  emphasis  and 
both  to  pray  and  to  work  for  a  religious  revival  in  our 
own  day. 

The  first  step  is  to  set  our  ideals  clearly  before  us 
and  then  we  can  begin  an  unremitting  struggle  to 
attain  them. 

When  I  talk  with  other  men  in  the  pews  about  the 
kind  of  man  they  need  in  the  pulpit  a  very  large  per- 
centage of  them  will  cry  out  for  what  they  describe  as 
a  "spiritually  minded  man."  They  want  an  intelli- 
gent man,  of  course,  and  a  man  with  gumption  enough 
to  administer  congregational  affairs.  But  there  is  an 
increasing  emphasis  upon  the  spiritual  note.  Perhaps 
the  minister  who  is  a  religious  promoter  will  at  some 
future  time  again  come  into  demand.  Possibly  there 
will  even  be  a  place  for  the  pastor  who  organizes  and 
standardizes  religious  activities  till  his  parish  runs  as 
busily  and  smoothly  as  a  canning  factory.  At  pres- 
ent, however,  there  is  a  widespread  recognition  of  a 
spiritual  need  and  the  preacher  must  be  the  man  to 
supply  it. 

What  is  a  "spiritually  minded"  man?  What  do 
my  friends  mean  when  they  use  such  a  term?  They 
mean,  as  I  apprehend  them,  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  this — that  their  preacher  must  be  one  who  takes 
Our  Lord's  theory  of  life  seriously.  That  a  man 
should  thus  be  struggling  to  attain  Christlikeness 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  191 

does  not  under  the  circumstances  seem  much  to  ask. 
Whether  it  is  much  or  little,  the  men  in  the  crowd  are 
actually  asking  it  and  their  demand  is  going  to  become 
more  insistent. 

What  do  I  mean  by  Our  Lord's  theory  of  life? 
Wherein  do  I  conceive  Christlikeness  to  consist?  I 
understand  Our  Lord  to  insist  upon  the  distinction 
between  animal  existence  and  the  life  of  the  man  who 
enters  into  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  relations 
with  God.19  The  disclosure  of  the  possibility  of  such 
relations  is  the  opening  of  a  new  life  to  mankind.  To 
reveal  this  life  to  us  and  that  we  might  have  it  in  rich 
abundance  was  the  purpose  with  which  Our  Lord 
was  made  Man.  Finite  though  we  are,  He  has  made 
us  aware  that  we  are  yet  not  entirely  independent 
entities,  since  we  remain  in  vital  union  with  the  self- 
subsistent  Life  of  that  Eternal  One,  Whose  concern 
for  each  of  us  cannot  otherwise  be  described  than  as 
the  love  which  a  father  has  for  his  own  children. 
The  realization  of  this  union  with  a  loving  Father  is 
found,  after  our  measure,  in  thinking  God's  thoughts, 
in  conforming  to  His  purposes  and  in  holding  with 
Him  such  silent  intercourse  as  soul  may  have  with 
soul.  Because  the  criterion  of  truth  is  ever  to  be 
found  in  the  nature  of  consciousness  itself,  Our  Lord 
declares  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."20 

Such  is  the  theory.     Christlikeness  is  attained  in 

19 See,  generally,  C.  B.  Upton:  'The  Bases  of  Religious 
Belief"  (The  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1893). 

20  St.  Luke,  xvii.,  21.  Cf.  Rufus  M.  Jones:  Social  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World,  p.  171. 


192  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

proportion  to  our  earnestness  in  putting  it  into  prac- 
tice— not  partially  but  in  its  entirety.  We  might  as 
well  give  up  the  imitation  of  Christ  altogether  as  to 
attempt  it  without  giving  large  place  in  our  experi- 
ence to  solitary  meditation  and  sustained  effort  in 
prayer.  His  is  the  self-subsistent  Life  and  we  must 
draw  our  spiritual  vitality  from  union  with  the 
Eternal.  To  live  in  a  material  universe  and  to  give 
merely  intellectual  recognition  to  the  spirit  world  is 
not  really  to  live  at  all  but  to  starve  ourselves  to  death. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  achievement  of  Christlikeness 
is  an  absolute  impossibility  unless,  as  a  consequence 
of  God's  Fatherhood  toward  all  men,  there  is  a  con- 
stant, thoroughgoing  recognition  of  our  spiritual 
relation  to  every  son  of  God. 

From  this  statement  it  might  be  inferred  that  one 
may  succeed  in  living  close  to  God  while  shutting  man 
out  of  his  thoughts  and  close  to  his  brother  without 
taking  account  of  God.  The  former  inference  is  more 
or  less  unconsciously  drawn  by  those  who  lose  them- 
selves in  silent  contemplation  of  the  Divine,  whether 
such  contemplation  be  purely  subjective  or  whether  it 
take  a  sacramental  form.  The  latter  inference  is  the 
mental  process  of  those  whose  religion  is  merely  a  reli- 
gion of  social  service.  The  fact,  however,  is  that  the 
one  true  God  is  wholly  beyond  the  ken  of  the  man  who 
is  not  sensitive  to  brotherly  obligations.  That  in  a 
fellow  being  which  should  be  the  real  object  of 
brotherly  ministration  is  altogether  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  man  who  is  not  daily  drinking  in  the  life  of 
God.  I  may  shut  myself  in  my  room  and  give  myself 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  193 

over  to  meditation.  I  may  be  constantly  at  the  altar 
with  my  gaze  fastened  upon  the  Host;  but  if  I  am 
neglecting  my  duties  in  the  social  order  the  vision  that 
I  have  is  not  a  vision  of  God  at  all.  I  may  visit  the 
sick,  clothe  the  naked,  feed  the  hungry — and  my  ser- 
vice, no  matter  how  scientific,  will  not  be  a  service  to 
my  brother  but  only  to  his  carcase,  unless  he  is  made 
aware  that  I  regard  myself  as  merely  the  humblest  of 
God's  messengers. 

To  be  Christlike  is  neither  to  be  given  over  to  mysti- 
cism nor  cumbered  with  serving,  but  it  is  to  make  such 
constant  draughts  upon  the  life  of  God  as  can  be  as- 
similated only  if  we  are  spending  ourselves  in  service. 
If  I  bring  my  gift  to  the  altar  and  there  remember 
that  the  sacred  bond  of  brotherhood  has  been  violated, 
I  must  leave  my  gift  and  first  be  reconciled  to  my 
brother.21 

When  men  in  the  crowd  cry  out  for  a  spiritually 
minded  man  they  are  clamoring  for  one  who  is  not 
content  to  be  at  one  time  this  and  at  another  time 
that,  but  for  one  who  is  always  struggling  to  be  simul- 
taneously a  mystic  and  a  man  of  action.  They  want 
a  minister  who  is  himself  a  demonstration  that  as  God 
knows  more  about  heaven  and  earth  than  anybody 
else  so  His  most  faithful  servant  is  one  fitted  to  be 
thoroughly  at  home  in  both  places.  They  know  in 
their  heart  of  hearts  that  there  is  no  opposition  be- 
tween the  qualities  that  make  for  happiness  in  the 
two  spheres  of  life,  and  they  long  for  a  man  to  whom 

21  St.  Matthew,  v.,  23.  See  The  Witness  to  the  Influence  of 
Christ,  p.  54. 


194  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

they  can  point  as  a  living  reason  for  the  faith  that  is 
in  them. 

Too  often  the  men  in  the  pews  must  make  allow- 
ances for  the  minister.  "He  is  a  good  man,"  they  say, 
"but  he  knows  nothing  about  business."  Not  seldom 
the  complaint  is  this,  "What  he  says  is  all  very  well 
but  it  does  not  grip  the  people/'  A  familiar  criticism 
is  to  the  effect  that  the  man  in  the  pew  has  nothing 
in  common  with  the  minister  and  that  they  live  in  dif- 
ferent worlds.  Occasionally  the  minister's  life  illus- 
trates how  easy  it  is  to  treat  principles  of  conduct  as 
abstractions  to  be  talked  about  rather  than  as  courses 
by  which  to  steer.  I  do  not  refer  to  flagrant  breaches 
of  the  moral  law  but  rather  to  little  inaccuracies  of 
statement  and  to  violations  of  familiar  rules  of  fair 
play  and  to  carelessness  in  accounting  for  small  sums 
of  money  and  to  petty  abuses  of  authority  and  to 
underhand  ways  of  accomplishing  laudable  results. 
During  my  twenty-one  years  of  service  as  a  teacher 
of  law  it  happened  several  times  that  ministers  were 
most  insistent  that  rules  should  be  relaxed  in  favor 
of  sons  who  had  failed  in  examinations,  in  spite  of 
every  effort  to  make  the  fathers  see  that  the  course 
urged  upon  the  professor  would  result  in  serious  in- 
justice to  other  students.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to 
be  consulted  professionally  by  many  ministers  of 
many  communions  respecting  questions  of  church 
property  and  church  law.  I  have  observed  in  the  case 
of  many  worthy  men  a  persistent  tendency  to  ignore 
the  golden  rule  and  to  display  towards  those  who 
differed  from  them  the  kind  of  spirit  which  inspired 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  195 

the  imprecatory  psalms.  If  the  synods  and  conven- 
tions of  other  communions  are  like  those  of  the  Epis- 
copal body,  men  who  have  attended  them  must  have 
noted  occasional  displays  of  bad  temper  or  of  dis- 
ingenuousness  in  debate  and  manifestations  of  small 
mindedness  in  dealing  with  big  questions.  When  the 
man  in  the  pew  is  compelled  to  make  excuses  for  the 
man  in  the  pulpit  there  is  something  seriously  amiss. 
Now  each  of  the  defects  of  character  which  I  have 
mentioned  is,  in  the  case  of  men  who  are  really  trying 
to  be  Christlike,  directly  traceable  to  a  false  emphasis 
on  some  aspect  of  truth.  The  minister  may  shut  his 
soul  up  in  contemplation  and  deprive  it  of  "innumer- 
able influences  that  would  tend  to  chasten,  enrich  and 
illuminate  it."22  This  means,  as  a  practical  matter, 
that  unreserved  surrender  to  the  mystical  element  in 
religion  is  likely  to  have  serious  moral  consequences. 
This  is  true  whether  the  disciple  be  Catholic  or 
Quaker.  On  the  other  hand,  a  minister  may  abandon 
all  spiritual  privacy  and,  as  it  were,  do  his  praying 
standing  at  the  corners  of  the  streets,  not  indeed,  with 
the  unworthy  purpose  of  being  seen  of  men,  but  for 
the  equally  disastrous  reason  that  he  cannot  afford 
the  time  to  be  alone.  Or  a  minister  may  cease  to  be 
either  a  mystic  or  a  man  of  action  and  become  a  mere 
exhorter,  a  drillmaster  who  cares  little  about  the 
source  of  the  orders  which  he  shouts  and  regards  them 
as  having  no  personal  application  to  himself.  Few 

22  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall:  Christ  and  the  Eastern  Soul, 
p.  42. 


196  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

things  are  more  shocking  than  the  way  in  which  some 
men  of  this  sort  gradually  lose  all  sense  of  reverence 
and  use  the  name  of  Christ  as  a  mere  symbol  for  a 
good  resolution.  People  are  noisily  exhorted  to 
"accept  Christ"  when  all  that  is  meant  is  that  they 
should  sign  the  pledge  or  beware  of  the  police.  It 
requires  all  the  deep  religious  earnestness  of  a  man 
like  Sunday  to  rescue  revival  phraseology  from  an 
offensive  materialism. 

Christlikeness  is  the  ideal  and  even  slight  progress 
toward  attainment  is  to  be  made  only  at  the  cost  of 
struggle.  At  first  sight  there  seems  an  inconsistency 
between  an  exhortation  to  struggle  and  Our  Lord's 
promise  of  peace.  I  take  it,  however,  that  peace  of 
mind  is  a  phrase  that  may  properly  be  used  to  describe 
the  state  of  the  man  who  is  consistently  struggling 
toward  a  definite  goal.  It  is  singleness  of  aim  and 
motive  that  bring  peace.  "This  one  thing  I  do,"  said 
Saint  Paul.23  The  peace  of  God  stood  guard  over  his 
heart  and  mind;  but  the  one  thing  he  did  was  to 
struggle  like  a  runner  toward  the  finish  line.  To  be 
lost  in  the  woods  is  both  terrifying  and  distracting; 
but  if  you  trust  your  guide  the  most  strenuous  trip 
through  the  wilderness  is  a  peaceful  experience. 

The  struggle  to  be  Christlike  involves  ceaseless 
effort  to  keep  the  various  kinds  of  religious  experience 
in  proper  relation  to  one  another.  We  are  familiar 
with  exhortations  to  particular  acts  of  devotion  or  to 
particular  kinds  of  spiritual  activity.  I  suggest  that 

23  Philippians,  iii.,  13. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  197 

we  think  too  little  of  the  importance  of  correlating 
and  co-ordinating  them.  The  danger  of  movements 
to  stimulate  certain  religious  activities  is  not  that  the 
activity  in  question  will  receive  too  much  attention 
but  that  others  will  get  too  little.  The  advocate  of  a 
prayer  league  is  apt  to  underemphasize  Bible  study. 
The  promotion  of  a  Eucharistic  confraternity  tends 
to  make  social  service  seem  unworthy.  A  Bible  study 
propaganda  may  suggest  doubts  as  to  the  efficacy  of 
public  services  for  prayer  and  worship.  The  obvious 
fact  is  that  each  of  these  good  things  is  a  satisfaction 
of  a  legitimate  religious  need  and  that  no  one  of 
them  can  be  neglected  without  spiritual  peril.  The 
man  in  the  pulpit,  like  the  man  in  the  pew,  must  fol- 
low every  clue  that  leads  him  on  to  God. 

The  man  in  the  pulpit  must  make  a  continual  effort 
to  be  aware  of  God.  There  is  too  much  contemporary 
Christianity  that  takes  God  for  granted.  To  be  aware 
of  God  means  that  we  must  see  Him  in  nature  and  in 
history,  that  we  must  perceive  Him  in  the  lives  of  our 
fellow  men  and  that  we  must  find  Him  in  the  recesses 
of  our  souls.  That  our  environment  does  not  of  itself 
suggest  God  to  us  has  been  observed  in  a  former24 
lecture.  The  conditions  of  our  life  make  the  search 
for  God  a  struggle,  but  the  struggle  brings  its  rich 
reward.  We  men  of  the  West  are  even  less  accus- 
tomed to  look  for  God  within  us  than  to  seek  Him  in 
the  world  about  us.  One  of  the  lessons  that  we  may 
learn  from  our  Oriental  brethren  is  the  persistent 

24  Lecture  II.,  p.  37. 


198  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

quest  of  the  Being  who  is  revealed  only  to  those  of 
tranquil  mind.  Says  the  Upanishad:  "This  deity 
who  is  manifesting  himself  in  the  activities  of  the 
Universe  always  dwells  in  the  heart  of  man  as  the 
supreme  soul.  Those  who  realize  him  through  the 
immediate  perception  of  the  heart  attain  immor- 
tality."2 It  should  become  our  fixed  habit  to  practice 
the  Presence  of  God  and  to  live  the  whole  of  life  and 
every  part  of  it  as  if  under  His  all-seeing  eye.  The 
man  who  persistently  does  this  will  find  that  the 
Presence  is  knowable,  accessible  and  usable.26 

Some  men  find  the  Presence  as  the  result  of  unaided 
meditation.27  To  most  Christians  the  Eucharist  is  the 
medium  through  which  Our  Lord's  Presence  is  appre- 
hended. The  danger  to  be  guarded  against  in  the 
one  case  is  the  tendency  to  pure  subjectivity.  In  the 
other,  it  is  overemphasis  on  the  material  vehicle. 
Nobody  who  has  ever  experienced  the  overpowering 
sense  of  Divine  Presence  in  the  Eucharist  can  doubt 
the  wisdom  or  permanency  of  Our  Lord's  command, 
"Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me."28 

The  effort  to  realize  God's  Presence  must  be  sup- 
plemented by  the  struggle  for  communion  with  Him. 

25  Sadhana,  by  Rabindranath  Tagore,  p.  36. 

26  James  M.  Campbell :  The  Presence;  passim. 

27  In  A   Wayfarer  s  Faith  f  by  T.  Edmund  Harvey,  a  devout 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  is  to  be  found  an  interesting 
and  helpful  chapter  (Chapter  IV.)  on  "Sacraments  of  Life." 

28  Devout  souls  of  many  churches  have  been  helped  by  medi- 
tating upon  the  Fourth  Book  of  the  Imitation  of  Christ  in  which 
Thomas  a  Kempis  writes  of  Holy  Communion. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  199 

The  idea  of  communion  is  plainly  distinguishable 
from  that  of  presence.  A  failure  to  attend  to  the 
distinction  has  led  to  much  misunderstanding  between 
disciples  respecting  such  matters  as  non-communi- 
cating attendance,  the  reservation  of  the  Sacrament 
and  Eucharistic  adoration.  The  man  who  has  be- 
come aware  of  God  must  not  rest  in  contemplation. 
He  must  be  restless  till  his  finite  soul  has  touched  the 
great  Soul  of  God.  As  in  the  touching  of  the  border 
of  Our  Lord's  garment,29  so  here  there  will  be  an 
accession  of  spiritual  strength  to  the  seeker. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enlarge  either  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  prayer  or  upon  the  subject  of  Holy  Commun- 
ion. It  ought  to  be  superfluous  to  urge  them  upon 
the  attention  of  the  prophet  of  the  Most  High.  And 
yet,  with  respect  to  prayer,  I  may  be  permitted  to 
express  the  haunting  fear  that  many  of  us  have  well- 
nigh  forgotten  its  power.  As  to  the  Christian  theory 
of  prayer,  one  is  often  astonished  at  what  appears  to 
be  a  wide-spread  popular  misapprehension  respecting 
its  nature  and  aim.  Many  good  people  seem  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  spectacle  of  warring  nations  offer- 
ing contradictory  petitions  to  God.  They  appear  to 
believe  that  God  is  being  in  some  way  compromised 
by  the  inconsistencies  of  the  suppliants.  I  pause  to 
observe  that  a  lawyer  would  have  an  anxious  life  if 
he  conceived  the  foundations  of  the  law  to  be  threat- 
ened every  time  a  plaintiff  and  a  defendant  asked  for 
inconsistent  relief  and  if  he  supposed  that  orators 

M  St.  Luke,  viii.,  44  et  seq. 


200  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

could  impose  upon  the  court  the  necessity  of  grant- 
ing their  prayers  modo  et  forma.  Prayer  is  the  con- 
dition of  the  exercise  of  God's  will,  not  an  insubor- 
dinate attempt  to  defeat  it.  It  is  by  far  the  greatest 
power  that  a  man  has  at  his  disposal.  It  is  extraordi- 
nary how  little  real  use  we  make  of  it,  we  who  profess 
to  be  struggling  for  Christlikeness.  Our  use  of 
prayer-book  prayers  is  perfunctory.  The  prayers 
of  our  own  composition  are  lacking  in  depth  and 
reality.  The  exercises  which  we  call  our  private 
morning  and  evening  devotions  are  usually  as 
mechanical  as  the  operations  of  an  Oriental  prayer- 
wheel.  When  we  begin  meetings  with  prayer  we  are 
apt  to  be  formal  and  superficial.  We  are  sadly  in 
need  of  the  prayer  spirit  and  we  can  achieve  it  only 
by  training  our  wills  and  sacrificing  our  time. 
"Teach  us  to  pray"  is  a  petition  that  should  be 
often  on  our  lips.  Time  is  productively  invested  if 
it  is  spent  in  praying  to  pray.80  It  is  profitable  to 
pick  out  from  the  Gospels  the  passages  which  indi- 
cate the  part  played  by  prayer  in  Our  Lord's  life. 
If  we  do  this  we  are  driven  to  confess  frankly  that 
unless  in  this  respect  we  change  our  lives  radically 
our  efforts  at  Christlikeness  are  foredoomed  to  disas- 
trous failure.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to 
recommend  to  the  student  of  divinity  the  study  of  a 
few  biographies  from  among  those  that  have  exer- 
cised a  powerful  influence  on  some  of  the  men  in  the 

80  With  God  in  Prayer,  by  The  Rt.  Rev.  Charles  H.  Brent, 
will  be  found  to  be  full  of  helpfulness  and  suggestion. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  201 

crowd.  I  refer  to  the  lives  of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,81 
of  Saint  Francis  de  Sales,32  of  Fenelon,83  of  WiUiam 
Law34  and  of  George  Miiller  of  Bristol.35  My  own 
experience  leads  me  to  believe  that  Law's  Serious 
Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life  is  one  of  the  most 
compelling  books  ever  written. 

To  practice  the  Presence  of  God  and  to  draw 
strength  from  Him  through  communion  is  to  supply 
one's  self  with  power  for  use  in  the  world.  The  con- 
templation of  God  and  communication  with  Him  in 
prayer  and  sacrament  should  be  the  concomitants  of 
a  life  of  ceaseless  activity.  It  is,  I  repeat,  a  matter 
of  co-ordinating  the  energies  of  the  soul  and  keeping 
every  spiritual  faculty  at  high  tension.  That  man 
seems  to  me  to  be  untrue  to  Our  Lord's  theory  and 
practice  who  isolates  himself  from  contact  with  the 
world  and  lives  a  life  of  dreamy  meditation.  A 
scrupulous  observance  of  the  Christian  year  and  a 

31  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  by  Richard  S.  Storrs.     New  York. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 

32  The  Devout  Life  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  by  H.  L.  Sidney 
Lear. 

33  Fenelon,  Archbishop  of  Cambrai,  by  H.  L.  Sidney  Lear. 

84  Characters  and  Characteristics  of  William  Law,  by  Alex- 
ander Whyte,  D.  D.  London.  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

35  George  Miiller  of  Bristol  and  His  Witness  to  a  Prayer- 
Hearing  God,  by  Arthur  T.  Pierson.  New  York.  The  Baker  and 
Taylor  Company.  This  is  a  book  of  extraordinary  interest.  See 
in  particular  the  "five  grand  conditions  of  prevailing  prayer" 
(p.  170)  and  the  Appendix  (A)  containing  in  their  order  of 
helpfulness  the  Scripture  texts  which  in  fact  influenced  Miiller's 
life. 


202  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

constant  and  devout  attendance  upon  the  Eucharist 
are  in  the  case  of  many  disciples  consistent  with  an 
un-Christlike  attitude  of  mind  toward  other  men  in 
the  distressed  and  harassed  crowd.  All  the  Christian 
power  and  inspiration  seem  to  be  consumed  in  the 
process  of  their  own  production.  I  suggest  that 
every  disciple  should  find  a  place  in  his  life  for  mys- 
tical communion  and  for  frequent  attendance  at  a 
rescue-mission  where  he  can  come  into  brotherly 
contact  with  the  man  who  is  "of  all  man's  clotted  clay 
the  dingiest  clot."  The  preacher  who  shuts  himself 
up  among  his  books  at  the  beginning  of  the  week 
and  emerges  at  the  end  of  it  with  a  carefully  pre- 
pared sermon  may  be  guilty  of  something  which 
approaches  intellectual  debauchery.  Nothing  in  the 
world  is  more  delightful  to  an  intellectual  man  than 
to  have  the  time  and  opportunity  to  do  his  work 
without  interruption.  Few  things  are  worse  for  his 
immortal  soul  than  that  he  should  be  able  so  to  gratify 
himself.  The  preparation  of  the  sermon  may  easily 
become  an  act  of  harmful  self-indulgence  that  is  all 
the  more  seductive  because  disguised  as  the  careful 
discharge  of  a  duty.  Such  a  practice  is  certainly  at 
war  with  Our  Lord's  theory. 

Social  conventions  which  tend  to  separate  the 
disciple  from  his  brethren  are  serious  obstacles  in  the 
path  of  the  Christian.  There  is  a  deal  of  snobbish- 
ness in  this  country  among  well-to-do  people.  It  is 
a  sad  thing  when  layman  or  minister  finds  it  impos- 
sible to  feel  at  ease  in  the  homes  of  the  very  poor. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  PULPIT  203 

Those  who  can  afford  to  take  places  in  drawing-room 
cars  or  to  summon  a  taxicab  are  apt  to  lose  by  degrees 
the  capacity  to  be  comfortable  under  the  conditions 
to  which  the  masses  of  their  brethren  are  subject.  If 
a  minister  cannot  find  time  to  visit  everybody  in  his 
congregation  let  him  put  the  well-to-do  people  at 
the  foot  of  his  list.  Both  classes  need  his  ministra- 
tions but  it  is  in  the  service  of  the  poor  that  his  own 
spiritual  development  will  most  effectually  be 
stimulated. 

No  reference  has  been  made  to  Bible  study  as  an 
aid  to  any  one  religious  experience,  because  in  fact 
such  study  may  be  so  pursued  as  to  minister  to  each 
and  all  of  them.  The  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  whole 
of  God's  self-revelation.  If  a  man  is  enough  in 
earnest  to  have  experienced  a  genuine  spiritual  need 
the  quest  for  satisfaction  in  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ 
is  a  quest  which  is  certain  to  be  rewarded.  Let  it 
be  remembered,  however,  that  the  written  word  is 
not  an  end  in  itself.  Through  the  recorded  messages 
of  the  Spirit  we  are  ever  to  seek  for  the  revelation  of 
that  living  Word  who  was  content  to  be  made  flesh 
and  to  tabernacle  among  us.  If  in  connection  with 
Bible  study  I  may  make  a  single  suggestion  to  my 
younger  friends,  it  is  this — to  give  large  place  to  the 
study  of  the  Psalms  and  not  to  be  content  till  you 
have  memorized  them  all.  Intimate  familiarity  with 
them  will  prove  an  unspeakable  blessing  in  every 
crisis  of  life.30  The  revelation  of  Divinity  of  which 

38  See,  The  Psalms  in  Human  Life,  by  Rowland  E.  Prothero. 


204  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  CROWD 

they  are  the  transparent  medium,  will  be  a  lantern 
unto  your  feet  and  a  light  unto  your  paths. 

And  so  I  bring  this  lecture  and  my  course  to  a 
close,  with  hearty  gratitude  for  your  courtesy  and 
attention.  My  parting  suggestion  to  the  man  in  the 
pulpit  is  this,  that  he  should  come  constantly  into  the 
presence  of  the  Great  King.  He  should  be  filled 
with  a  sense  of  majesty  and  awe.  He  should  humbly 
but  confidently  look  for  the  gracious  smile  which 
tells  him  that  he  is  recognized  and  may  draw  nearer. 
He  should  rejoice  in  the  ennobling  companionship 
of  which  such  recognition  is  a  pledge.  The  sense  of 
fellowship  with  the  Divine  should  remain  with  him 
when  he  leaves  the  Presence  chamber;  and  his  daily 
contacts  with  life  should  be  hailed  as  an  opportunity 
to  manifest  the  spirit  of  unaffected  brotherhood 
toward  every  human  creature. 


SUPPLEMENT 

LYMAN  BEECHER  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING 
YALE  UNIVERSITY 

1871-72     Beecher,  H.  W.,  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,  first 

series.    New  York,  1872. 

1872-73     Beecher,  H.  W.,  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,  sec- 
ond series.    New  York,  1873. 
1873-74     Beecher,   H.   W.,   Yale   Lectures   on   Preaching, 

third  series.    New  York,  1874. 
1874-75     HaU,  John,  God's  Word  through  Preaching.  New 

York,  1875. 
1875-76     Taylor,  William  M.,  The  Ministry  of  the  Word. 

New  York,  1876. 
1876-77     Brooks,  P.,  Lectures  on  Preaching.     New  York, 

1877. 
1877-78     Dale,  R.  W.,  Nine  Lectures  on  Preaching.     New 

York,  1878. 
1878-79     Simpson,  M.,  Lectures  on  Preaching.    New  York, 

1879. 
1879-80     Crosby,  H.,  The  Christian  Preacher.    New  York, 

1880. 

1880-81     Duryea,  J.  T.,  and  others  (not  published). 
1881-82     Robinson,  E.  G.,  Lectures  on  Preaching.     New 

York,  1883. 

1882-83     (No  lectures.) 
1883-84     Burton,  N.  J.,  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,  and 

other  writings.    New  York,  1888.* 


206 


SUPPLEMENT 


1884-85  Storrs,  H.  M.,  The  American  Preacher  (not  pub- 
lished) . 

1885-86  Taylor,  W.  M.,  The  Scottish  Pulpit.  New  York, 
1887. 

1886-87     Gladden,  W.,  Tools  and  the  Man.    Boston,  1893. 

1887-88  Trumbull,  H.  C.,  The  Sunday  School.  Philadel- 
phia, 1888. 

1888-89  Broadus,  J.  A.,  Preaching  and  the  Ministerial 
Life  (not  published). 

1889-90  Behrends,  A.  J.  F.,  The  Philosophy  of  Preaching. 
New  York,  1890. 

1890-91  Stalker,  J.,  The  Preacher  and  His  Models.  New 
York,  1891. 

1891-92  Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern 
Theology.  New  York,  1893. 

1892-93     Horton,  R.  F.,  Verbum  Dei.    New  York,  1893.* 

1893-94     (No  lectures.) 

1894-95  Greer,  D.  H.,  The  Preacher  and  his  Place.  New 
York,  1895. 

1895-96  Van  Dyke,  H.,  The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt. 
New  York,  1896.* 

1896-97     Watson,  J.,  The  Cure  of  Souls.    New  York,  1896. 

1897-98  Tucker,  W.  J.,  The  Making  and  the  Unmaking 
of  the  Preacher.  Boston,  1898. 

1898-99  Smith,  G.  A.,  Modern  Criticism  and  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. New  York,  1901. 

1899-00  Brown,  J.,  Puritan  Preaching  in  England.  New 
York,  1900. 

1900-01     (No  lectures.) 

1901-02     Gladden,  W.,  Social  Salvation.    New  York,  1902. 

1902-03  Gordon,  G.  A.,  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith. 
New  York,  1903. 


SUPPLEMENT 


207 


1903-04     Abbott,   L.,    The   Christian    Ministry.      Boston, 

1905. 
1904-05     Peabody,  F.  G.,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Christian 

Character.    New  York,  1905.* 
1905-06     Brown,  C.  R.,  The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern 

Pulpit.    New  York,  1906. 
1906-07     Forsyth,  P.  T.,  Positive  Preaching  and  Modern 

Mind.    New  York,  1908.* 
1907-08     Faunce,  W.  H.  P.,  The  Educational  Ideal  in  the 

Ministry.    New  York,  1908. 
1908-09     Henson,  H.  H.,  The  Liberty  of  Prophesying.  New 

Haven,  1910.* 
1909-10     Jefferson,  C.  E.,  The  Building  of  the  Church.  New 

York,  1910. 
1910-11     Gunsaulus,  F.  W.,  The  Minister  and  the  Spiritual 

Life.    New  York,  Chicago,  1911. 
1911-12     Jowett,  J.  H.,  The  Preacher;  His  Life  and  Work. 

New  York,  1912. 
1912-13     Parkhurst,  C.  H.,  The  Pulpit  and  the  Pew.    New 

Haven,  1913.* 
1913-14     C.    Sylvester   Home,   M.   P.,   The   Romance    of 

Preaching.    New  York,  Chicago,  1914. 

*  Also  published  in  London. 


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